Elizabeth (Reese Witherspoon) is a sensitive and hard-working doctor at San Francisco Hospital. After working a 26-hour ER shift, she learns from her superior that she has just been awarded the position of attending physician. It's something she has been dreaming about for a long time and everyone around her knows she deserves it. On her way to a dinner party at her sister Abbey's (Dina Waters) to meet a potential date, she has a head-on collision with a truck.

Meanwhile David (Mark Ruffalo), a shy and withdrawn man who is still mourning the death of his wife two years ago, has given up his work as a garden designer and decided to drop out for a while. David is amazed at how many places do not suit his needs. Then a leaflet advertising a sublet mysteriously flutters against his leg and into his hands. This dream apartment has a fireplace, lots of space and private roof access with a splendid view of San Francisco. Enjoying the privacy of his new home where he can relax and retreat further from the world, David is astonished when Elizabeth shows up and claims that he is an intruder in her apartment. Looking at the mess he has made, she is convinced that he is a homeless mental patient. Imagine their complete shock when they both realize that Elizabeth is a spirit that only David can see.

This entertaining tale about the romantic love that develops between the two, one in the flesh and one incorporeal, is based on a novel by Marc Levy that has been adapted for the screen by Peter Tolan and Leslie Dixon. It is directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls) who mines the many comic moments in the story. In one, Elizabeth follows David to a bar where he meets with his friend Jack (Donal Logue) who is a laid-back psychiatrist. When David tries to drink, Elizabeth (who can disappear through walls) enters his body and forces him to spill the liquor all over his friends.

But there are many other dimensions to the story as well. As David and Elizabeth try to discover what happened to her, they meet with Darryl (Jon Heder, the lead character in Napoleon Dynamite), who works in an occult book store and is blessed with "the gift" to see into the spirit world. He senses Elizabeth's presence and sees the grief that has overtaken David and made him into a zombie. The spiritual dimensions of Just Like Heaven are not very deep, but the story still manages to touch the heart as these two reach out for each other in the mystery that surrounds them. They provide each other with the reason to come back to life from the prison-house of death that has trapped them both.

DVD features include subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.