I hate it!

I hate it! but I love it!

I hi-bye, everybody!

I hi-hi-bye, one and all.

Welcome to I hate it, but I love it.

I'm Jocelyn Getty.

I am Kat Angus, and this is the podcast about all the pop culture you love and hate simultaneously.

This week we are talking about just like heaven. Oh my. I have heard so much about this movie over the years, and I was excited to finally sit down and watch it.

And I will say this is one of those projects that drives me bonkers, because there are actors in it that I like,

and there's a premise in it that's interesting, and the ending is, but what if it wasn't the thing that we told you it was and also sold this as? Yes, a thousand percent. Now, just like heaven, this was a listener request from Becky, so I will read what Becky had to say. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the 2005 rom-com starring Mark Ruffalo and Reese Witherspoon. It's a perfect hate-but-love for me because I love a rom-com. The stars are good together and has a gooey center that makes it rewatchable. At the same time, the plot is bonkers. She is a ghost only he can see. And the secondary characters range from scene stealing, Donald Logue. Bland or implausible, Ben Shekman as the rival doctor, too cartoonishly unhinged, Ivana Milichevich as the neighbor. Fingers crossed, I've been hoping for years that you do this movie during rom-com month. Well, Becky, here we are. Here we are, Becky. Yeah, I agree. I feel like this movie, this movie feels like such a, like a lost opportunity.

Because like you said, like people I like in it, a premise I like, and then just kind of like,

oh, okay, that's it, that's all we're doing here. Okay. Yeah. Sure.

Mark Ruffalo, very cute. And he's doing, he's trying real hard, considering how many

scenes involve him having to act against nobody.

Yes.

That said, I think, that he's not quite as gifted at physical comedy to really pull all of those scenes off, or in the way that this movie would need.

He acquits himself pretty well, considering the level of skill for this kind of humor that he has,

but I think somebody with a little more skill at it might have elevated those scenes a little bit.

Yes.

But yeah, that being said, I don't know, this feels very paint-by-numbers rom-com to me.

Like, there's no real surprises.

There's maybe a couple moments that I was like, oh, that's a little funny or a little edgier than I was expecting. But for the most part, it was like, this felt just like picking, like, romantic tropes and then just putting him in a list and, oh, okay, the movie's over. There you go. There you are. There you are. Well, yes. And it was strange to watch this in the aftermath of, this is going to sound temporarily weird, but follow me on this. In the aftermath of Stranger Things 5, only insofar as, as we sort of discussed in that, a lot of plot points are changed or recond in order to force the ending that they were going for. So what I don't like as a writer and also as a person is when the rules of engagement are changed midstream. And this

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