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USA 1993
Directed by
Ron Underwood
103 minutes
Rated PG

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
1.5 stars

Heart And Souls

Warren Beatty and Buck Henry’s 1978 film Heaven Can Wait got the after-life visitation concept to work with quite a deal of wit and style. Ron Underwood’s variant possesses neither quality. This time the idea is that the spirits/ghosts, call them what you will, inhabit the body of a newborn baby whose birth is caused by the bus accident which killed them. Initially Milo (Tom Sizemore), Harrison (Charles Grodin), Penny (Alfre Woodard) and Julia (Kyra Sedgwick) use Thomas to amuse themselves then, realizing that they are harming the boy, they go dormant for 25 years, before reappearing to Thomas (Robert Downey Jr.) in order to bring closure to their unfinished former lives before being reclaimed by the eternal wheel of life and death.

Heart and Souls is the sort of film that makes you wonder who thought it a good idea to make it.  Lamely scripted by a team of writers (never a good sign) it is a sentimental and for all its supernatural possibilities, phenomenally trite affair that is awkwardly realized by Underwood. Having one supernatural presence “unseen” by anyone but the audience and the main protagonist is a common device but Underwood has no idea how to cope with four such characters. The problem is that they are the main ingredients of the paper-thin, reiterative story as each of the deceased tweely resolves their karma and Thomas goes from being a heartless yuppie to being a nice guy (acknowledged by a doo-wop rendition of “Walk Like A Man” by the five principals).

Precisely because the film is so naff it will have its fans who will fondly recall Robert Downey Jr., then in his first incarnation as a multiplex comedy star and off-screen brat-packer.  Indeed about the only thing that one could recommend in the film is Downey’s efforts to represent his “possession” by his co-players, who commendably do their best to get this tosh to work. Not signing up for it in the first place would, howevfer, have been more commendable.  If nostalgia doesn’t apply, then forget it. There's really nothing more to be had from this film.

Available from: Shock Entertainment

 

 

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