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'Over Her Dead Body'

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BY GENE SEYMOUR | gene.seymour@newsday.com

February 1, 2008

Even the worst movies are capable of bending the laws of time. Still, there's something really special about the way "Over Her Dead Body" makes its 93 minutes seem more like nine hours. The movie's flimsy concept, which could only have gotten past the TV pilot stage (maybe) in the mid-1960s, takes an awfully long time to make itself known. And once it does, you can't wait for it to go back to where it came from.

That's pretty much how Ashley (Lake Bell), part-time psychic and full-time caterer, feels about Kate (Eva Longoria Parker), who in life was a shrill control freak betrothed to a laid-back veterinarian named Henry (Paul Rudd) before a runaway ice sculpture fell on top of her, thus putting her skittish soul in a Big White Waiting Room in the Sky.

It now turns out that Ashley, hired by Henry's meddlesome sister (Lindsay Sloane) to "commune" with Kate's spirit in order to rouse him from grief-stricken stupor, has developed a crush on Henry. That the feeling may be mutual has raised the hackles on Kate's ghostly but still prickly spine, and she makes her presence - and resentment - known to Ashley, who's the only human being who can see her.

Somewhere, Cosmo Topper, spooked hero of similar, classier comedies, is weeping. And, if he's watching "Over Her Dead Body," he's probably checking his watch along with the rest of us, waiting in vain for the movie to grow some grace. This is the kind of film that makes you regret living in a world where tired cliches about flatulence, gay male best friends like Ashley's catering partner (Jason Biggs) and cat owners can be served up as if they were fresh from the oven.

When content fails, you hope the stars at least make things bearable. Parker, compelled to amplify her astringent "Desperate Housewives" persona for the big screen, emits a glossiness made tackier by her character's petty-minded mischief. And though her presence is meant to be intrusive, you'd really prefer her out of the way when Rudd and Bell carry out well-timed give-and-take.

Indeed, Bell, best known for her work on such TV series as "Boston Legal," shows here that she's got game as a comedic actress, comfortable in her skin even when the movie embarrasses both itself and her character. Hers is the kind of talent that deserves first-rate romantic comedies. If "Over My Dead Body" exemplifies what Hollywood believes to be the best it can do within this genre, Bell's prospects for such work appear fairly bleak.

OVER HER DEAD BODY (PG-13). The romantic comedy genre takes yet another low blow with this flaccid contrivance about an obnoxious ghost (Eva Longoria Parker) trying to sabotage a budding relationship between her ex-fiancee (Paul Rudd) and a psychic (Lake Bell, who's the only reason to bother with this thing at all). With Jason Biggs and Lindsay Sloane. Written and directed by Jeff Lowell. 1:33. (vulgarities, sexual content). At area theaters.