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Actor Mark Ruffalo. This is what we "know" about him
professionally... He is an incredibly enigmatic actor with more than
just a "pulse". Mark Ruffalo has "it", that soulfully enthralling
passion which engages his audience and gives each of his performances
substance and credibility, no matter what character he happens to "slip
into"... like a comfortable T-shirt. He endured a staggering 800
rejections from the elite world of Hollywood before anyone would even
allow him to walk onto a film set. This is what we know about him
personally... [from our own perspectives of course]... He's the guy you
couldn't quite place in your high school yearbook but you always
remember liking him... a LOT. He's your best friend's younger brother
who suddenly became unbelievably attractive but you aren't exactly sure
when it all happened. He's the guy you wouldn't mind having a few cold
beers with at the local pub while discussing the philosophy of Carl
Jung. He's happily married and you respect him for that. He adores his
wife and children and you are hopelessly endeared to him because in
Hollywood... that's just not reality. But it is indeed Mark Ruffalo's
reality and that is what really matters. Mark Ruffalo won the Best Actor
Award at the 2000 Montreal Film Festival and the New Generation Award
from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for his standout
performance in You Can Count on Me opposite Laura Linney. The film won
both the coveted Grand Jury Prize for best dramatic film and the Waldo
Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival and garnered
Ruffalo an Independent Spirit Award nomination. One of the most
respected actors of his generation [at least by all of us here at UPBEAT
Entertainment], Ruffalo can currently be seen reluctantly courting the
rather discombobulated spirit of Reese Witherspoon in the also
"spirited" romantic comedy, Just Like Heaven [a film based on the
equally engaging novel,
If Only It Were True by Marc Levy].
While a
number of "mainstream" critics have completely dismissed this little
gem of a film for its lack of attention to "sensible detail", we ADORED
it! To these same critics I pose this question: Why is it "okay" for
directors like George Lucas to create alternate worlds and universes
with an absurdly bloated set of sci-fi rules and regulations for fans to
memorize and follow to the letter; but when a very clever director the
likes of Mark Waters allows us all the opportunity to leave behind the
ongoing tragedies of our everyday lives opting instead for something
much more hopeful, his film is deemed "too surreal" and easily
dismissed? Just Like Heaven is an irresistible and unpretentious morsel
of old-fashioned romance with an appropriate dash of metaphysics tossed
in for good measure. It’s not so much boy meets girl, as boy meets
spirit, though neither of them lets that that stand in the way of
falling in love... in spite of themselves.
 David
[Mark Ruffalo], is a disheveled lost soul of the living sort who
tries to cope with having become suddenly widowed two years’ back by
guzzling beer and remaining as immobile as humanly possible in front of
his television. While searching for a furnished place to live in San
Francisco, and not finding one with a sofa that meets his stringent
requirements, he’s all but assaulted by an ad for a sublet that simply
won’t take no for an answer. The place is an Edwardian dream with views,
a fireplace, private roof access, and, as David discovers, a previous
tenant who hasn’t quite "vacated" the premises. That would be Elizabeth
[Reese Witherspoon], a medical resident who was so focused on her
medical career that she failed to notice her life was passing her by.
And so it is not much of a surprise that she’s also failed to notice her
suddenly incorporeal state.
They meet with Elizabeth mistaking David for a homeless mental
case and David is inevitably forced to wear his boxers while taking a
shower now that his privacy has been invaded. He tries to exorcise
Elizabeth, with holy water, chanting, and pointedly ignoring her as she
sings show tunes off-key while he tries to watch television. The film
peals away quickly from there giving us all something to ponder: In a
world filled with a virtual "buffet" of cutting edge technology and
instant convenience, why are there so many lonely successful people
wandering about? You see, beneath the extraordinary dialogue there
resonates the genuine loneliness of each character [combined with those
of us in the audience who immediately identify] which has so effectively
subsumed; we are all collectively snapped out of in spite of ourselves.
Witherspoon in particular, is achingly pensive as she finally walks
inside of a restaurant she’s always wanted to visit and never had time
for when suddenly she has the unfortunate catharsis that perhaps now she
never will. It’s truly sentimental but, like other such moments, it does
absolutely nothing to dampen the comedy generated by this "new age"
couple who are positively made for each other; but they certainly do
have a bigger than usual obstacle to overcome [an understatement of epic
proportions].
 Mark
Ruffalo, who takes his ongoing success “one day at a time”, laughs,
“David has a little bit of an edge to him, which I think is interesting
to see in any romantic comedy. He starts out obviously depressed and
anti-social. He sublets this great apartment, and all he wants is to be
left alone, but all of a sudden he starts seeing this girl who insists
the apartment is hers. He thinks he’s losing his mind, but then it
becomes a question of how does he get rid of her. She’s annoying as
hell.” he says with more laughter. For the takes in which Ruffalo had to
act with an obviously absent Witherspoon, he explains, “I really had to
remember what she was doing in the scene, and where, but after a while,
I knew her height and her proximity and where her eye line was, so I
could play to her without her actually being there. Another thing that
helped was I had an ‘earwig,’ so when she was offstage, she could say
her lines and I could really be responding to her.” When asked what
actor actually “inspired” his career the always thoughtful Ruffalo
engages rather poignantly, “Probably Marcello Mastroianni. He just had a
real class and panache. He did a lot of different things. He was always
going back to theatre. He was just a classy guy. My training comes from
Marlon Brando’s background, Stella Adler. I think he’s the venerated,
great American actor that somehow got sidetracked. His early work is
probably the best we have in America. Then there’s Pacino, De Niro, all
of the “O’s”.”
If Just
Like Heaven has any real flaws at all, it’s in being underwritten
whenever the focus of the film is on anything but David and Elizabeth’s
interaction. As for the film’s charm, we give that to Mark Ruffalo, who
is always… enigmatically engaging. Perhaps director Mark Waters explains
the film’s universal appeal best when he paraphrases William
Shakespeare, “There
are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our
philosophy.” UB
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