A guy, his psychic and a ghost

For what it is — a romantic comedy about the rivalry between a jealous ghost and a flaky psychic for the love of a veterinarian — Over Her Dead Body is not bad. Eva Longoria Parker, as Kate, the ghost, represents the control-freak/ice-queen end of the female comedic spectrum pretty well, while Lake Bell as Ashley, the psychic, is perfectly lovely on the sweet, scatterbrained end. In the middle is Henry the vet, played by the winningly smirky Paul Rudd, and there are sidekicks drawn from the usual storeroom: the kooky sister (Lindsay Sloane) and the gay male best friend (Jason Biggs).

There is no question that this movie, the first feature directed by Jeff Lowell, whose screenwriting credits include John Tucker Must Die, could be much worse. But it also could have been, with a little more effort, a lot better. The cast members are talented and game, but they struggle with some borderline-incompetent direction and a series of humorous situations that are less than fresh. I mean, sure, it’s always hilarious when a beautiful woman is squirted in the chest with mustard, or when Mr. Biggs’s arm catches on fire. But an extended bout of flatulence and a dessert-flambéing mishap don’t really yield big laughs. For good measure, there’s also an elderly priest and an overweight dog.

Near the end the guy rushes to the airport to catch the girl. This stunning plot development seems to have been designed either to elicit sympathy for the striking writers by giving a foretaste of the inferno of cliché into which their continued absence will plunge us all, or else to undermine that sympathy with a brazen display of hackdom. But maybe I should give Mr. Lowell a few points for originality, since this is to my knowledge the first rush-to-the-airport climax to feature a talking parrot riding in a taxi.

And I liked Ms Longoria Parker, in a curve-hugging white dress, as the desperate housewife from hell. Or whatever zone of the afterlife Kate arrives at after an errant ice sculpture fatally disrupts her wedding to Henry. Possessive and controlling even in death, she tries to keep Ashley away from her erstwhile man through a campaign of annoyingness rather like the one Reese Witherspoon used against Mark Ruffalo in the jealous-ghost romantic comedy Just Like Heaven.

Ashley fights back rather half-heartedly, and the whole movie feels lazy and underdeveloped, in spite of the best efforts of the actors. Mr Biggs, victim of a preposterous and unfunny plot twist, lends his knack for ungainly physical comedy, but Mr Rudd is stranded in his own sarcasm. Ms Bell works hardest of all and proves to be thoroughly charming in what amounts (I hope) to an audition for a better movie sometime in the near future.