From the very opening scene of Over Her Dead Body, one realizes that it is not to be a thinking man's movie. Kate (Eva Longoria) is a controlling bride on her wedding day, ordering staff about rather annoyingly. This way, we don't feel quite as bad when she is killed hours before the ceremony. Henry (Paul Rudd), the groom, of course has the misfortune of having his fiancée die on him. Even more bothersome, her ghost will meddle in his dating life, believing her "unfinished business" is to protect Henry from other women. As the ice angel falls to crush the skull of our doomed heroine-turned-antagonist, her face can be described only as cartoonish - presumably to soften the blow of the potentially grisly image.
We are reintroduced to the story a year later. Henry is yet despondent over Kate's death, neither dating nor socializing. He is eventually convinced to go to see "psychic" Ashley (Lake Bell). Ashley is more or less a hack, but a well-intentioned hack, as she only reports things she believes she has actually "heard." Unfortunately for Ashley, she ends up being able to actually see Kate in her undead form. Kate, of course, has the sole mission of preventing Ashley and Henry from getting together. Hilarity, no doubt, ensues.
The movie has all the subtlety and power to move as you would expect from any other romantic comedy. The plot was painfully predictable. I won't spoil the ending, but, dear reader, you already know it and the lesson you will learn. Kate is easy to hate and one-dimensional throughout the movie, until the very end when she realizes some truths about love and life. All the trappings of a somewhat enjoyable, if mindless date movie. What else does one expect from a romantic comedy?
Here is something one does not expect: fart jokes. Rather, one long, drawn-out, fart-joke scene, lasting a full minute and a half, where the audio is nothing but - you guessed it. Also unnecessary is the cover-your-face-awkward sex scene, when Ashley can see Kate watching her - but doesn't want Henry to know she is there.
Oddly enough, the audience did seem to enjoy the movie immensly. Both aforementioned scenes had most of the viewers in stitches, why cannot be guessed. There were certainly clever lines, and one twist that I did not see coming. Perhaps those who come to the movie expecting little are more apt to get something out of it.
One major flaw of this movie that I could not get past the entire time was the relationship between Kate and Henry. Kate is controlling, overbearing and annoying. Henry is a soft-spoken, clever veterinarian who hits it off particularly well with Ashley the bumbling-but-adorable psychic/caterer. How Henry ever came to be engaged to Kate is beyond me. In fact, Kate never seems to be concerned with Henry at all, even from the grave. Kate cares only about foiling Ashley in her plans to be with "her man." How could Henry miss a woman so much who cared for him so little? And why, furthermore, is Kate's "unfinished business" to get these two together - something that probably would have happened more easily without her meddling?
In another scene, the first of Kate's "hauntings" of Ashley, Kate pretends to be a client posessed by a demonic spirit, warning Ashley to stay away. In what could have been an impressive scene to scare Ashley, the entire thing was played off as comical. Eva Longoria, unsurprisingly, cannot emulate the voice of a possesed spirit very well. This could have been corrected easily by overdubbing a demonic voice, which was done eventually, but it still retained much of Longoria's vocal character and thus remained unconvincing.
Finally, the movie injects some of the writers' lowbrow philosophy into the mix, apparently to appeal to a non-denominationally religious public. Ashley declares that not believing in heaven makes for a "sad and hopeless life," a bit of a shock to those who might not quite believe in the pearly-gates version of heaven.
In any case, I do not claim that I sat stony faced through this movie. It was not a terrible waste of time, though I would not pay to see it. But I would understand if someone else did.
Over Her Dead Body opens in theaters Feb. 1.
