Guys, if your gal wants to drag you to the latest Eva Longoria Parker chick flick in an attempt at entertainment gender balance this Super Bowl weekend, just say: “Over my dead body.” Because “Over Her Dead Body” is one of the most lifeless romantic comedies in any astral plane.
The diminutive desperate housewife is billed as if she is the lead. But Parker isreally only the obnoxious supernatural supporting character, a diva poltergeist named Kate, meant to supply narrative conflict for the two main potential paramours played by formerly more cute Paul Rudd (“Clueless”) and young new movie ingenue Lake Bell (of TV’s “Boston Legal”).
They service a familiar concept: what happens if a dead significant other becomes the haunting third leg of a love triangle when the surviving partner attempts to move on and perhaps hook up with another living person.
Anyone see, uh, “Ghost”? “Heaven Can Wait”? “Truly Madly Deeply”?
These and other better films already dealt in the same ethereal territory more effectively than does debuting director Jeff Lowell, who is also responsible for writing the meager screenplay. Lowell is not much good at casting or regulating performance, either.
Though she may be an appealing presence on the red carpet and in the tabloids, Parker overacts her fool fanny off here as Kate — both in purgatory and out. Then there’s Ms. Bell, a lanky redhead with the interesting looks but not the outsized personality to fill up a big screen. She plays the ditzy caterer/psychic Ashley, who crushes on Kate’s man. Meanwhile the audience is expected to believe that these two hot women would be fighting each other fiercely across the paranormal divide for the affections of Rudd, as the wimpy veterinarian Henry, looking at least a decade older plus several notches below them in the dating hierarchy.
The actors interact, couple and uncouple, through the kind of lazy plot machinations that make a humble film critic want to commit hari-kari. Everything exists either as an excuse for a dumb comedy gag or to fulfill the prescribed formula of a Screenwriting 101 class. Among the egregious nonsense: The slapstick jester character, played as it too often is by Jason Biggs again here, has pretended to be gay for five years without detection to hide his affections for his bestfriend and daily business associate Ashley. She has no clue that he’s straight or obsessed with her. And they are BEST FRIENDS!!
Don’t bother asking how such a thing is possible. And don’t go see “Over Her Dead Body.”
‘Over Her Dead Body’
*
» Starring: Eva Longoria Parker
» Director: Jeff Lowell
» Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language
» Running time: 95 minutes
