Eva Longoria Parker (left) plays a dead bridezilla displeased when her fiance begins a relationship with Lake Bell (right).
(Dale Robinette/New Line Cinema)
Movie Review
"Over Her Dead Body" is to romantic comedy what Spam is to meat. But at least with Spam, you get cool packaging. With this movie, you get a migraine that begins the minute an ice sculpture crushes to death Kate (Eva Longoria Parker, taking Tony Parker's surname) on her wedding day. What should be the end of this movie is merely the beginning. Kate is one of those bridezillas who needs to control everything. So, as a ghost, she tries to commandeer the love life of her former groom, Henry (Paul Rudd). He's started dating Ashley (Lake Bell), the dingbat caterer-psychic who, incidentally, can see, hear, and be terrorized by Kate.
Bell's face is in the Amanda Peet-Jessica Simpson neighborhood. For a few years she's toiled on sub-par television shows, and most of this movie is a presumed showcase for her heretofore under-exploited slapstick skills - or what, in this comedy, would pass for slapstick.
When it comes to running soapy and almost nude through a gym or being slathered in mustard, Bell is a hard worker. But writer and first-time director Jeff Lowell doesn't think much of her character (he doesn't appear to think much of comedy, directing, or romance, either). For some reason, Henry gives Ashley a copy of David Foster Wallace's "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," to which she says, "I can't wait not to read it." Ultimately, the film feels very much like an audition for a sitcom.
Longoria Parker is barely around - and when she is, you wish she'd go away. This isn't the case with her on "Desperate Housewives," where she frequently suggests she might be a comedienne. Here she's rushed and strident and pinched. You understand why she's here (she's probably looking for a "27 Dresses" of her own). But what's Rudd's excuse? He tries to inject some of his natural sarcasm into his scenes, but the movie is never as charming, witty, or smart as Rudd has been in other people's movies. Here the editing leaves him looking befuddled or painfully bored. That makes two of us.
Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com. For more on movies, go to boston.com/ae/movies/blog.
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