Movie Review - 'Over Her Dead Body'

Over Her Dead Body

Starring Eva Longoria-Parker, Paul Rudd, and Lake Bell
Directed by Jeff Lowell
Rated PG-13

When you think about it, there’s really not much that could go right with Over Her Dead Body. Movies involving the freshly dead popping back up in the lives of those they left behind very, very rarely amount to much, primarily because the setup is so stupendously hokey. Look at it this way: If the best case scenario is that it might turn out like Ghost with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, you’re in for a long night at the movies.

In Over Her Dead Body, the freshly dead is Eva Longoria Parker, thereby answering the prayers of many. And even if you’re not a fan of Desperate Housewives, credit has to be given to the creative staff on that show, because her flair for comedy in Over Her Dead Body is utterly nonexistent.

There are jokes, although they aren’t very good, but Eva can’t find her way into even the easiest among them. Instead, she gestures wildly and raises her voice, like this is some bad community theater production, which the flick resembles in a lot of ways, actually.

She’s haunting the lives of her former fiancé, played by Paul Rudd, and the psychic he visited to try to contact his late love and who over time became his new girlfriend (Lake Bell). The closer the new couple moves together and the more Rudd begins to put his former flame behind him, the more venomous the perfectly dressed ghost of Eva Longoria Parker becomes.

Again, ostensibly, this is supposed to be a comedy about letting go of your past. But when the threadbare concept isn’t livened up by any of the three lead performances, and when the jokes are this tepid, it’s hard not to think you’ve died and gone to movie hell.

In addition to Longoria Parker’s ability to wet blanket entire scenes just by being in them, Paul Rudd comes across resigned and leaden. We love him in the Judd Apatow movies, but it’s hard not to watch his eyes in Over My Dead Body and see the questions lurking behind them:

“How did I sink this low?”

“Where did it all go so wrong for me?”

“I am getting paid for this, right?”

Over Her Dead Body is being released right before Valentine’s Day, and the timing is worth noting. Not only does this movie whiff on the comedic half of the romantic comedy equation, it’s not the least bit romantic. This movie is to love and laughs what battery acid is to silky smooth skin.