La joyeuse revenante

'Hello again' might not be the best movie ever made in fact you could class it more as a made for TV movie but its not trying to be 'A Street car Named Desire' all its trying to do is bring joy to Shelly Long fans. It made me chuckle. The premise for the movie is very good. A house wife who lives through her husband and has no particular purpose in life suddenly dies but only for her to be brought back to life for her to live her life the way she should of all along. However the film is very patchy in places with no real character development, change in plot confusing, jokes fall flat, random scenes clutter up the film, the list of problems could go on. Shelly Long does the best she can with a dodgy script as do the other actors. Her performance leaves you in no doubts of her comedic talents. But through out its problems it never lose its its tone. Lighthearted fun for all the family especially Shelly Long fans.

Lucy Chadman (Shelley Long) is a former-teacher Long Island housewife uncomfortable with the high class parties required by her ambitious Manhattan surgeon Jason (Corbin Bernsen) looking to be chief of plastic surgery at the Knickerbocker. Her gold-digging college friend Kim Lacey (Sela Ward) is three-times-married and looking for a fourth. Her son Danny is a passionate chef. Her sister Zelda (Judith Ivey) is an odd character dabbling in witchcraft. Lucy chokes to death on a South Korean chicken ball from Zelda. Exactly one year later, Zelda uses a spellbook to bring back Lucy. She finds the world has changed. Danny didn't go to Columbia and instead, opened his own restaurant. Jason married Kim and sold the house. She returns to the Knickerbocker ER to talk to Dr. Kevin Scanlon (Gabriel Byrne) who treated her a year ago. Unbeknownst to her, she needs to find true love by the next full moon.

This is not that funny. Shelley Long's pratfalls are awkward and unfunny. The first half of the story is good. The romance takes a long time to start. Gabriel Byrne doesn't show up until the end of the first act and even later for him to fully be a character. The second half of the story is clunky after the world discovers her return from the dead. This is simply not funny enough and I put most of that on writer Susan Isaacs. Director Frank Perry does a workmanlike job but his comedic takes are not laugh worthy either. The romance is fine and I kinda like the wacky sister.

All right, so it's not the great epic of our times, but it's pretty cute. Gabriel Byrne gives a good performance as Kevin Scanlon, the workaholic doctor who falls in love with Lucy Chadman, a nonsensical suburban housewife resurrected a year after her death. Byrne combines wry humour and determination nicely - and is the reason I've seen the movie as many times as I have. Shelley Long bubbles as usual, in the role of Lucy, a woman who must choose between her old life, and her second chance for happiness. It's a cute 80's romantic comedy, and an enjoyable anecdote.

I'm surprised at the other summary of this movie. I, too, have seen it several times and have always found it fairly well acted and written and just a good bit of fun in general.

Some of us LIKE movies with a happy ending! Kick back and enjoy this one.

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.