A super supernatural romance

Rating: 8/10 (22 September 2008)

I hadn't seen this film for many years but having watched it again I'm glad that I did as it was as entertaining as it was when I first saw it.
The film opens with Sam and Molly moving into their new apartment, every thing seems to be going right for them; they are in love, he is a successful banker and they have a lovely home. Things go wrong in the worst way possible when he is killed by a mugger as they return from an evening at the theatre. From the title of the film you probably guessed that this isn't the end of him. As a ghost he follows Molly home and soon learns that his mugging wasn't as random as it first appeared when the mugger breaks in to his home and starts looking for something. Unfortunately for him, with the exception of being able to scare the cat, he can't interact with the world of the living, luckily however when he follows the mugger he encounters a medium who can hear what he says. She is rather alarmed at this as up until now she believed herself to be a fraud. He persuades her to contact Molly to warn her about the mugger's plans to return but not surprisingly Molly isn't impressed with her story.
With Sam dead his best friend Carl starts seeing more and more of Molly, first to comfort her then later he tries to seduce her. Sam understandably loses his temper and in doing so knocks over a photograph, an ability he didn't know he had. Earlier on his travels he had met another ghost who could move objects so seeks him out to learn how to do it himself. I won't spoil the ending by saying exactly what happens but we do learn why he was killed and that not everybody is quite what they appear to be.
This film seems to fit in several categories, it is a love story, a comedy, a thriller and obviously a ghost story, it combines these elements well. The effects are pretty good given the film's age, especially the shadows that come to life to drag the bad guys off when they die, these were genuinely creepy. The acting was good, there was a chemistry between Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore... especially during the now famous pottery scene and Whoopi Goldberg was good as the medium although she walked a fine line between funny and embarrassing.