I did not feel like I gained anything from this film. It is usually the case with cheesy 2000s romcoms to not be in any sort of way educational/emotionally challenging, but its main purpose is to give temporary comfort.
But Just Like Heaven did not provide me with any comfort. I’ve given this movie 2 chances, one when I was a teenager and one when I was an adult. Both times it missed.
Sean Baker really knows how to bring your hopes up and then hit you with reality, not necessarily in an uncomfortable manner, but more in a " this is what’s supposed to happen, accept it, and move on" kind of way. It’s hard to describe.
I knew of course that Ani will never get what she fantasizes about over night (life of luxury, comfort, lifting of social status), but at certain points in the film you just get so immersed…
3h36 minutes felt like a blip in this geometrically proportioned piece of motion architecture.
