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Sick Product of a Sick System

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A saccharine little comedy, with ooey-gooey sweetness dripping from it's pores, about how Long returns from the dead and finds life a mess. The film sets her up as a plain-Jane housewife, with a cardboard doctor of a husband, and a son ready for college. Feeling at a loss of what to do with the rest of her days, she does the most interesting thing she can: she dies. Fortunately, her nutcase sister is a pseudo-witch doctor who "chants" her back to life. Only for Long to be hounded by the media and jilted by her husband. It's all handled so tamely, so TV-movie-like that it could qualify for MST3K showings. Hard up for laughs, Long is written as a klutz, who trips, falls, spills, slides, and even at one point, undresses herself while trying to walk stairs. Her new love interest is a lifeless doctor who smiles at her maybe twice in the film, yet somehow falls for her. Throw in a melodramatic, over-baked finish, and you have a real eye roller. But what might be the clincher are just some of the shots used. Director Perry has people walking arm in arm and laughing gleefully, while entering rooms, or adjourning from others. Or they jack up the saxophone score on Long's "me so cute" smile, and even add a head tilt for Byrne's predictable, "I love you. " The ultimate pile of sugar is during the end credits, as a photo album is thumbed through. Pictures of all three lead couples, getting married, getting pregnant, and then posing with their babies. And Long is even blessed with twins! Then a male hand puts his on a female hand oh so sweetly as they look at the pictures. Please. Talk about redefining "And they lived happily ever after".

There is a lot in this movie that is fun to watch, fresh, charming, original and could not have been made with any other cast. Shelley Long won me over with this film. I was never a big Cheers fan but this made me wake up and take notice of her. She has been underutilized in Hollywood because she isn't outrageous...but that's everyone's loss.Judith Ivey is another great talent with which Hollywood has no idea what to do. Her charm and kookiness in this film lets her shine.The rest of the cast has a great deal of chemistry and is cast well for their broad characteristics.Please don't listen to others - - there are hundreds of other movies that deserve to be reviled and vilified more than this. Sure it's predictable -- How many movies aren't??? The concept is enjoyable and I predict that some bimbo-star of the future will remake this and it will be fabulously popular. People will flock to see it just because of the bimbo and then finally THIS movie will have had its vindication and will be eulogized -- pardon the pun. Just see it. It's fun.

I didn't like Doris Day in "Move Over, Darling" and I didn't like Shelley Long in "Hello Again." But, Doris Day, when under the direction of say, Norman Jewison, was brilliant. He kept the reins tight on her in films like "The Thrill of It All" and eliminated a lot of the "cuteness" or "dorisdayisms" that were annoying to so many people.With a better script, "Hello Again" would have been a fun picture for Miss Day, who when regulated, was the best at this sort of nonsense. Miss Long, God bless her, is no Doris Day in the comedy department and was not able to believably handle the slapstick like Miss Day (who was as good as Lucille Ball in that area).I would like to have seen Janis Paige or Dorothy Louden play the Judith Ivy part. Ivy was a little TOO weird-looking in this and I didn't believe her for a minute as Shelly's sister.Byrne was good as the doctor, but Shelley Long has never been movie star material. She's strictly small screen. Look at the hairstyle she was burdened with -- too high school girlish.The picture isn't that bad if there's nothing else to watch at the time. It's really a TV movie disguising itself as a big Hollywood screen comedy.

It is my opinion that Shelley Long is a very fine comedic actress, & she certainly doesn't disappoint as Lucy Chadman, a happy homemaker who even on her best day is less than graceful. This movie is utterly adorable, & it leaves you with one of those satisfied feelings when it's over. It has a great deal of heart. Gabriel Bern is fantastic as the doctor who may be Lucy's last chance for true love, & you just want to strangle Sela Ward. Overall this movie (light and fluffy as some may call it) asks a poignant question if you had a second chance...what would you do with it?