Hello Again

Plot synopsis:
Long Island housewife Lucy Chadman in the midst of a tarot card reading by her occult sister, Zelda. Just as Zelda exclaims something is going to happen, Lucy begins to choke to death on a South Korean Chicken Ball. The film shows the difficulty of Lucy's loved ones, including Zelda, had in coping with her death. But the grief turns to excitement when Zelda receives a book of spells called The Wisdom of Catagonia. Within the book Zelda finds a spell that requires perfect astronomical timing—the moon, the earth, and the dog star must form a perfect isosceles triangle. Zelda performs the spell and Lucy appears.
Lucy begins to reacquaint herself with living and with her family who are shocked to see her alive again, one year later, and soon discovers that she cannot simply pick her life back up where she left off. She returns to find her widower husband has sold their home and married her greedy and double-crossing friend from college. Her son, meanwhile, has opened his own successful restaurant and married, instead of going to Columbia.
When she returns to the hospital at which she died, the emergency room doctor who tried to revive her begins to fall for her. Zelda confides in the doctor that if Lucy does not find love by the next full moon, she will have to go back to the spirit world. He does not believe Zelda. Eventually the press finds out that Lucy came back from the dead, and plague her, her family, and the hospital the ER doctor works at. Her college friend becomes jealous of her media attention and the attention Lucy is getting from Mr. Chadman. She holds a news conference of her own and tells the media Lucy made the whole thing up—claiming that Lucy used tetrodotoxin as a means to fake her own death. Lucy does not defend herself, as she sees this as an opportunity to rid herself and her friends of the media. Instead, the doctor gets fired, her sister's occult store is vandalized and she is hated by almost everyone, except her family. She decides to end the debacle once and for all by tricking her college friend into admitting she lied about Lucy faking her death in front of the media at a party the hospital is having. Lucy, the doctor, and her family walk away happily. As the credits roll we see that both Lucy and Zelda get married and have children with their new loves (Lucy has twins). Lucy's son also becomes a father.

Tags: romantic

Review:
There is a lot in this movie that is fun to watch, fresh, charming, original and could not have been made with any other cast.
Shelley Long won me over with this film.
Her charm and kookiness in this film lets her shine.The rest of the cast has a great deal of chemistry and is cast well for their broad characteristics.Please don't listen to others - - there are hundreds of other movies that deserve to be reviled and vilified more than this.
Hello Again's best characters are Shelley Long and the actress who plays her sister.
The film also provides an array of kooky characters,such as Shelley Long's sister, daugther-in-law, and brother-in-law.
As usual Shelley's physical comedy makes you chuckle, even if it is more subtle in this flick.
The comedy is off-sets by watching Shelley's struggle through this particular predicament, and although at times you empathisize with her, the movie never brings you down.
Shelly Long has proved herself to be very versatile in comedy.
While this is not a complicated movie -- nor one of the best acted, it is one of the best acted that Shelly Long has done.
Even though it won no awards for acting, I find that it is one of the most entertaining movies I have seen -- one that needs to be added to a personal library, along with one of Shelly Long's funniest movies to be seen: Troop Beverly Hills..
i love this film it totally brings me back to being 10 again, it was just wacky enough to hold my attention, fair enough it doesn't match up to todays standard of movie but its a heart warming story that i love to watch again and again.
Shelly plays the total scatter brain that i expect of her and her sister Zelda soon enough becomes the voice of reason.
i totally recommend this film to anyone with a weird sense of humour, for goodness sake she chokes on a chicken ball.
Hello Again isn't getting the recognition it deserves.It's a funny relaxing movie that does indeed leave you sighing with contentment.It always does for me.
It's about a housewife, Lucy Chadman married to an upscale doctor and is unhappy with her present career and comes to an untimely end while eating a south korean chicken ball.
Now Lucy must piece back her life with help from her handsome doctor and find true love within the next full moon or she has to go back.
The movie is memorable because of the quirky story , Gabriel Byrne's admiring eyes for Lucy and the nonstop comedy.Don't listen to most of the reviews, this movie is definitely worth watching!my rating: 10/10!.
I, too, have seen it several times and have always found it fairly well acted and written and just a good bit of fun in general.Some of us LIKE movies with a happy ending!
If you like Shelly Long you will love this.
'Hello again' might not be the best movie ever made in fact you could class it more as a made for TV movie but its not trying to be 'A Street car Named Desire' all its trying to do is bring joy to Shelly Long fans.
However the film is very patchy in places with no real character development, change in plot confusing, jokes fall flat, random scenes clutter up the film, the list of problems could go on.
Shelly Long does the best she can with a dodgy script as do the other actors.
Lighthearted fun for all the family especially Shelly Long fans..
I love this movie.
I love the store and the little restaurant that is run by the Son after her passing.It's full of magic and makes me feel just great after watching it.
It makes me cry each time I watch it too.
Shelley Long plays a great part in it.
Shelley Long is adorable!.
I have seen this film numerous times and find it hilarious and Shelley Long adorable.
It's a light-hearted, romantic comedy that achieves its goal -- it entertains you, makes you laugh and touches your heart.
Shelley Long, Judith Ivey, Gabriel Byrn and Sela Ward all give great performances, as does the rest of the supporting cast..
Another great 80's movie...I simply love it.
I was never a Cheers fan, but I loved Shelly Long in this.
If you liked this check out SWITCH with Ellen Barkin, another excellent and underrated film from the 80's.Back to HELLO AGAIN, this movie makes me feel good and laugh.
Her sister is hilarious, and the son is kinda cute.Simply loved the part when her sister revives her, and the part when she walks in on her husband and Kim. And the part when she crashed the party and drops cake on the monsters.
Love this movie totally!!!!!.
Shelley Long Was Fantastic in this FILM !.
If you like Shelley Long and enjoy her great acting skills, you will enjoy the role she plays in this film.
Shelly Long,(Lucy Chadman),"The Adventures of Ragtime",'98, is married to a doctor who performs plastic surgery and is very content with Lucy's slap stick ways of doing things.
There is a great deal of this comedy through out the entire picture.
Judith Ivey,(Zelda),"What Alice Found",'03, plays Lucy's sister and owns a book store in Manhattan and at the same time deals with the Spiritual World and manages to perform an unusual act of Witch Craft!
This is a very funny picture and if you like COMEDY, this is the film for YOU!.
A Truly lovely film!
It is my opinion that Shelley Long is a very fine comedic actress, & she certainly doesn't disappoint as Lucy Chadman, a happy homemaker who even on her best day is less than graceful.
This movie is utterly adorable, & it leaves you with one of those satisfied feelings when it's over.
Gabriel Bern is fantastic as the doctor who may be Lucy's last chance for true love, & you just want to strangle Sela Ward.
Accident-prone Long Island housewife Shelley Long (as Lucy) chokes to death on a South Korean chicken-ball, then comes back to life after a spell cast by her kooky sister Judith Ivey (as Zelda).
To avoid being sent back to her grave, Ms. Long must find true love with either her doctor Gabriel Byrne (as Kevin Scanlon) or widowed husband Corbin Bernsen (as Jason Chadman).
For added fun, Long's "Lucy" is given some physical comedy which recalls the famous comedienne.
Long and director Frank Perry can't quite get the staging and situation to make for maximum laughter.**** Hello Again (11/6/87) Frank Perry ~ Shelley Long, Judith Ivey, Gabriel Byrne, Corbin Bernsen.
I really feel that it is about time someone defended this movie!
Okay, so the script and the plot isn't up to much, and maybe some of the acting is a little bit on the thin side, but it's one of those movies that you can sit and watch without having to analyze every tiny detail.
I don't think Shelley Long is bad in the lead role, and her constant clumsiness did manage to raise the odd laugh, and I think her eccentric sister is brilliant.
Gabriel Byrne gives a good performance as Kevin Scanlon, the workaholic doctor who falls in love with Lucy Chadman, a nonsensical suburban housewife resurrected a year after her death.
Byrne combines wry humour and determination nicely - and is the reason I've seen the movie as many times as I have.
Shelley Long bubbles as usual, in the role of Lucy, a woman who must choose between her old life, and her second chance for happiness.
Lucy Chadman (Shelley Long) is a former-teacher Long Island housewife uncomfortable with the high class parties required by her ambitious Manhattan surgeon Jason (Corbin Bernsen) looking to be chief of plastic surgery at the Knickerbocker.
Her gold-digging college friend Kim Lacey (Sela Ward) is three-times-married and looking for a fourth.
Her sister Zelda (Judith Ivey) is an odd character dabbling in witchcraft.
Lucy chokes to death on a South Korean chicken ball from Zelda.
She returns to the Knickerbocker ER to talk to Dr. Kevin Scanlon (Gabriel Byrne) who treated her a year ago.
Shelley Long's pratfalls are awkward and unfunny.
The romance takes a long time to start.
Gabriel Byrne doesn't show up until the end of the first act and even later for him to fully be a character.
It's Shelly Long's character herself.
Don't get me wrong, I like Shelly Long (even though I keep reading reviews of people who keep saying how they can't stand her).
It's more of the type of character the writers made her to be in this film.
Shelly Long herself I think is a pleasant, nice looking woman in an innocent kind of way.
The writers must have thought that making her that way would be a good joke for the movie.
Lucy's (Shelly's) spiritual sister, Zelda who runs her own supernateraul shop is the one who performs a spell to bring her back.
Zelda is a neat, quirky character in this film and I liked her.
Anyway, when Lucy returns, she has to, of course go through the whole ordeal of immensely surprising everyone in her life from before her death that she has returned, and dealing with their understandably intense reactions with such a thing occurring.
She finds out how her husband Richard has now hooked up now Kim, a beautiful flashy woman who Lucy was friends with before but now, after the whole ordeal, the two women don't like each other so much anymore.
And Lucy, understandable, is not comfortable with seeing Kim romantically hooked up with her husband.
Peter obviously thinks she's crazy at first ("if you don't take a walk, I'm gonna call security"), but after convincing from Lucy saying things only the "real" Lucy wouldve known, and Peter conducting a series of tests, he's astounded to find out that this woman who died one year earlier, is really the same woman come back.
And Lucy dying from choking on a South Korean chicken ball is a good touch.
Lucy also made a pretty funny joke about the chicken ball before she choked, "boy, I'd like to see the rest of the chicken".
I must admit I am a fan of Shelley Long.
Please, please, please (to the producers) don't ever make a movie like this again.
Shelley Long dies but comes back, however there's nothing relatably human about Long's approach to acting.
I liked Long in the underrated "Irreconcilable Differences", where she really had a chance to carve out a character beyond her snippy "Cheers" persona.
Shelley Long has no business on the big screen...just as she had no business on television - and THAT'S saying something considering the sub-par acting that usually goes on in the world of TV actors.
I have no problem with silly movies and cute story lines.
But when a film is so obviously leading in one way with characters drawn with the largest strokes...it becomes a cartoon...and not a very funny one at that..
Shelley Long is no Doris Day!.
I didn't like Doris Day in "Move Over, Darling" and I didn't like Shelley Long in "Hello Again."  But, Doris Day, when under the direction of say, Norman Jewison, was brilliant.
He kept the reins tight on her in films like "The Thrill of It All" and eliminated a lot of the "cuteness" or "dorisdayisms" that were annoying to so many people.With a better script, "Hello Again" would have been a fun picture for Miss Day, who when regulated, was the best at this sort of nonsense.
Miss Long, God bless her, is no Doris Day in the comedy department and was not able to believably handle the slapstick like Miss Day (who was as good as Lucille Ball in that area).I would like to have seen Janis Paige or Dorothy Louden play the Judith Ivy part.
Ivy was a little TOO weird-looking in this and I didn't believe her for a minute as Shelly's sister.Byrne was good as the doctor, but Shelley Long has never been movie star material.
Look at the hairstyle she was burdened with -- too high school girlish.The picture isn't that bad if there's nothing else to watch at the time.
It's really a TV movie disguising itself as a big Hollywood screen comedy..
Shelley Long is annoying, and I must admit a certain tingle of happiness when she, as a boring housewife, dies, and a certain amount of disappointment when she comes back to life.
Her love interest, after her return from the grave, is Gabriel Byrne, a fantastic actor in a terrible film.
The audience is left unconvinced that there's anything, and the entire film is a groaner full of "Why did I bother to watch this?" thoughts..
I've seen this movie several times and I'm not sure why.
I just saw it again recently after a long time and what was I thinking before.
The story is unconceivable and lets face it Shelley Long is not the greatest actor in the world.
Shelley Long...
Hello Again is merely playing on the ideas that were already washed up in the 1930's screwball comedies, but had least had clever writers and fresh ideas.
A saccharine little comedy, with ooey-gooey sweetness dripping from it's pores, about how Long returns from the dead and finds life a mess.
The film sets her up as a plain-Jane housewife, with a cardboard doctor of a husband, and a son ready for college.
It's all handled so tamely, so TV-movie-like that it could qualify for MST3K showings.
Her new love interest is a lifeless doctor who smiles at her maybe twice in the film, yet somehow falls for her.
Or they jack up the saxophone score on Long's "me so cute" smile, and even add a head tilt for Byrne's predictable, "I love you.
The production goes hopelessly into the white bread with leads like Long and Bernsen.
One can only wonder how WASP-ily washed out this was made in conference, as Isaacs' settings are typically on Long Island or (from her own life) among the Jewish neighborhoods of Queens.For a great story on the much the same plot points, read her 1993 novel "After All These Years".
Lucy Chadman (Bubbly Shelly Long)is an embarrassment to her vain husband Jason (Corbin Bernsen), but loved by her quirky sister (Judith Ivey) and her son.
One day, she dies (Choking to death on a oriental chicken ball).
One year later, thanks to her sister's book of spells, Lucy comes back to life.
She soon finds that a lot has changed: her husband has married her friend, Kim(Sela Ward).
Lucy then becomes attracted to the doctor that tried to save her the year before (Gabriel Byrne).
Soon, her secret is out and Kim, afraid that her new hubby would go back to her, decides to cause trouble for Lucy.Sure the film may sound typical, even formulaic (You pretty much have a feeling how things will work out and who ends up with whom), but it's still a funny, sweet film.
Unless you're the mean ogre all of your neighbors avoid, I don't see anything wrong with admitting you like this movie.
I have seen it half a dozen times over the past 24 years, and it always brings me a lot of smiles, where repeat viewings of other more successful films of this era bring on groans.
This is equivalent to the "Topper" films of the 30's (and even more so the very enjoyable "Turnabout") so there's nothing rocket science about this movie's storyline.
Shelley Long either is praised or condemned, and to paraphrase Shakespeare, I come here to praise her for her likable performance in this rare later day screwball comedy.Judith Ivey may not seem to be perfect casting as her sister, but not all sisters look like Marcia, Jan and Cindy (to name the sisters from a later Shelley Long character).
Those who remember her deliciously campy performances in two roles on "Guiding Light" will adore her here, as will those who only know the veteran stage actress as the sister who ends up a birthday cake in "Creepshow".Nice movies don't seem to be the more popular ones in retrospective, but when you look at some of the teen comedies of the era, it's almost GB Shaw or Noel Coward in comparison..
Shelly Long is an excellent comedic actress who has excruciatingly terrible taste in choosing films.
She has perfect comedy timing and is at her best as an intellectual in a company of clowns.BUT she should NOT be cast as the clown!
Making Lucy's character a stumble bum is pointless.
And I liked Corbin B.I watch this movie to cheer myself up.
No matter how bad things are in my life, at least I didn't appear in this film..
Shelley Long is very appealing and cute in this harmless movie.
Long plays Lucy Chadman, a young woman who chokes to death, then months later is brought back to life by her wacky sister Zelda (Judith Ivey).
Chadman's life has changed radically since her death, and she spends her time falling in love all over again.The film has an uncomfortably goofy atmosphere, as if it's spoofing something that isn't really identified; these sequences are interspersed with very romantic scenes in which Chadman is again falling in love.
It's definitely a mixed bag, but the ending--which appears to have been tacked on after the writers couldn't come up with a story resolution--is so awkward and unconvincing that it ruins the entire film.
In all of my years, I don't think I've ever seen a film with such an unbelievably dumb story resolution.
I really felt sorry for the cast when I saw the ending.Long is good and Sela Ward is beautiful, but the goofy feeling the movie conveys irritated me somewhat, and the ending just left me dumbfounded.
Proceed if you like Shelley Long, I suppose.