Don't mess with the dead girl's man

Kate is a pushy perfectionist. She knows exactly what she wants and expects everyone to live up to her standards. Sadly, her need to be on top of every detail, combined with a drunken ice sculptor, causes her to meet her demise on her wedding day.

She awakes surrounded by white and rails against the first, and only, person she sees. Ironically, this person is a wingless angel--just the thing she insisted didn't exist when her angel ice sculpture showed up sans wings. Her inability to accept this, or her death, lead her to miss her "initiation speech," and she is sent back to Earth to accomplish something . . . she just hasn’t a clue what that is.

A year later, Kate's fiancé, Henry, is taken to see a psychic by his sister, Chloe. She believes that he's moped around enough, and it's time for him to move on. Her thoughts are that perhaps Henry can receive a message from beyond that Kate wants him to be happy and have a full life.

Ashley is a psychic part-time and a caterer full-time, with a gay assistant (Dan) that is as inept at cooking as she is at playing the part of medium or fortune teller. It's a good thing Dan has proved more useful as her best friend over the last five years, or he'd probably be gone by now. As for Ashley's failures, when she is unable to help Henry by "conventional" means, Chloe enlists her, against Ashley's better judgment, to use Kate's diary to convince Henry she's spoken to his dead fiancée.

Realizing she's become attracted to Henry, Ashley drags out the process and soon finds she is truly being confronted by the ghost of Kate. Having determined that she must be back on Earth to protect Henry, Kate plans to scare Ashley off. This only fuels Ashley's determination, and an interesting battle over a man begins.

Will Kate win and be able to move on to the next plane of existence, or will Ashley manage to hook Henry into a relationship that began with a lie? Several revelations will give every one of the characters something to think about and decisions to make that will forever change their futures.

I will start right off by saying I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I had hoped. For one thing, the relationship between Henry and Ashley progressed too quickly. In the time frame allowed by a film, I realize this is somewhat necessary. If not done correctly, it just feels forced, and that's the impression I got with these two. In fact, Henry becomes a stalker, of sorts, after only a few short meetings. Can you say creepy? There just wasn't any chemistry between them. I really didn't care whether they got together or not, and part of that was due to the fact that I saw Ashley as only wanting Henry to defy Kate. Her character struck me, at times, as being selfish and hypocritical.

The acting also left something to be desired. Paul Rudd as Henry was not as endearing as he was in other films, such as Clueless. He showed little emotion, even when he was supposed to be reacting badly to Kate's death after a year. Watching Lake Bell (Ashley) cry was cringe-worthy, and the klutziness of her character was less than amusing most of the time.

At least we had Jason Biggs (Dan) and Eva Longoria Parker as Kate to pick up the slack. Jason was as adorable as always, and Eva conveyed more emotion (cute, sassy, and otherwise) as a dead person than Lake did as a live one. Lindsay Sloane has really begun to hit the film industry which is wonderful to see because I loved her as Sabrina's best friend Valerie on television's "Sabrina" series. I recently noticed her bit role as a store clerk on Nancy Drew, and she played the loveable, quirky Chloe, here, with gusto.

Besides those actors that did do well, there were also a few great songs in the movie. "I Can See Clearly Now" by Eagle-Eye Cherry, "I Melt With You" by Sugarcult and "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects all had me tapping my fingers and moving around a bit.

Over Her Dead Body wouldn't be my first choice to recommend someone see if they're looking for a romantic comedy. In fact, it probably wouldn't even be in my top 20. If you like Eva Longoria Parker or Jason Biggs, you'll want to see it for their performances, but only if you don't have something else to watch that you know you'll really enjoy.