Back in the 1980s, I was actually a fan of Shelley Long. She was a terrific co-lead on Cheers and her pairing with Bette Midler in the comedy Outrageous Fortune was pure magic. I even found her appealing opposite Tom Hanks in the severely flawed The Money Pit. Alas, when she chose to headline comedies on her own, the results were disastrous starting with this labored effort.
Long is cast as ditzy suburban housewife Lucy Chapman, married to doctor Corbin Bernsen and best friends with well-to-do Sela Ward. When Lucy tragically chokes to death, her medium sister Judith Ivey brings her back to life on the one year anniversary of her death and chaos ensues.
Where to begin! First, perhaps a dark comedy could get away with opening with the tragic death of the lead character, but Hello Again is not a dark comedy. In fact, it is a pretty lackluster comedy in its best moments. Writer Susan Isaacs and director Frank Perry have done far better elsewhere (Compromising Positions jumps immediately to mind), so it is shocking how bad this film actually becomes.
Even within the parameters of a slight comedy, the bizarre nature of the story and the completely incomprehensible actions of those involved strain credulity. A woman returning from the dead one year later should be a monumental moment, but Lucy's relations and acquaintances treat it is a mild curiosity or an annoyance. Huh? When her sister brings her back, Lucy materializes in her funeral attire in a cemetery. She refuses to believe her sister and rambles on about nonsensical foolishness, never bothering to question how she ended up there. The scene where she returns home and discovers that Bernsen has married Ward is badly staged and goes on forever. And making Lucy a klutz to get cheap laughs is an easy out that becomes tiresome quickly.
It would have been nice to be surprised by Bernsen and Ward being married, but Long and Bernsen demonstrated no chemistry at all. Really, you do not understand from frame one why these people are married. And seriously, Bernsen and Ward could not even wait a year to get married?
With Bernsen obviously not a romantic interest here, the plot haphazardly shoes in Gabriel Byrne as the emergency room doctor who tried to save Long and then becomes involved with her later. Ivey conveys midway through that Long can only remain on earth if she finds her soul mate. Why? How does she know this? The revelation is thrown out of left field, so naturally we know that Byrne will be the one. Sadly, Long has as much chemistry with him as with Bernsen.
The cast is filled with familiar faces, all of who have had better days elsewhere. Ward is on auto-pilot playing a woman that seems a decent friend but then has to be turned into a cardboard villain...just because. Bernsen is dreadful demonstrating the sex appeal and energy of a rock on Prozac. Byrne looks like he would rather be elsewhere. Even normally reliable performers like Ivey and Carrie Nye are hard put to do anything with the ragged material.
The whole ghastly ordeal ends with a dinner party that has Long trying to trip up Ward with one of the most transparently fake conceits imaginable, snagging her dull soul mate, and then presenting one of the most lackluster cake gets dumped on nasty party guests sequences ever committed to film. If you are a Long fan, you would do well to seek out repeats of Cheers instead.
Long is cast as ditzy suburban housewife Lucy Chapman, married to doctor Corbin Bernsen and best friends with well-to-do Sela Ward. When Lucy tragically chokes to death, her medium sister Judith Ivey brings her back to life on the one year anniversary of her death and chaos ensues.
Where to begin! First, perhaps a dark comedy could get away with opening with the tragic death of the lead character, but Hello Again is not a dark comedy. In fact, it is a pretty lackluster comedy in its best moments. Writer Susan Isaacs and director Frank Perry have done far better elsewhere (Compromising Positions jumps immediately to mind), so it is shocking how bad this film actually becomes.
Even within the parameters of a slight comedy, the bizarre nature of the story and the completely incomprehensible actions of those involved strain credulity. A woman returning from the dead one year later should be a monumental moment, but Lucy's relations and acquaintances treat it is a mild curiosity or an annoyance. Huh? When her sister brings her back, Lucy materializes in her funeral attire in a cemetery. She refuses to believe her sister and rambles on about nonsensical foolishness, never bothering to question how she ended up there. The scene where she returns home and discovers that Bernsen has married Ward is badly staged and goes on forever. And making Lucy a klutz to get cheap laughs is an easy out that becomes tiresome quickly.
It would have been nice to be surprised by Bernsen and Ward being married, but Long and Bernsen demonstrated no chemistry at all. Really, you do not understand from frame one why these people are married. And seriously, Bernsen and Ward could not even wait a year to get married?
With Bernsen obviously not a romantic interest here, the plot haphazardly shoes in Gabriel Byrne as the emergency room doctor who tried to save Long and then becomes involved with her later. Ivey conveys midway through that Long can only remain on earth if she finds her soul mate. Why? How does she know this? The revelation is thrown out of left field, so naturally we know that Byrne will be the one. Sadly, Long has as much chemistry with him as with Bernsen.
The cast is filled with familiar faces, all of who have had better days elsewhere. Ward is on auto-pilot playing a woman that seems a decent friend but then has to be turned into a cardboard villain...just because. Bernsen is dreadful demonstrating the sex appeal and energy of a rock on Prozac. Byrne looks like he would rather be elsewhere. Even normally reliable performers like Ivey and Carrie Nye are hard put to do anything with the ragged material.
The whole ghastly ordeal ends with a dinner party that has Long trying to trip up Ward with one of the most transparently fake conceits imaginable, snagging her dull soul mate, and then presenting one of the most lackluster cake gets dumped on nasty party guests sequences ever committed to film. If you are a Long fan, you would do well to seek out repeats of Cheers instead.