Day Five: Heart and Souls

HEART AND SOULS

Starring:
-Robert Downey, Jr.
-Charles Grodin
-Kyra Sedgwick
-Elisabeth Shue
-Tom Sizemore
-David Paymer
-Alfre Woodard

Directed by: Ron Underwood

Screenplay Credits: Gregory Hansen, Erik Hansen, Brent Maddock, and S.S. Wilson

MPAA Rating: PG-13 -Not totally sure why it received this rating, but there you have it.

In the opening scene, a car radio blasts Que Sera Sera and a soon to be father Husband rushes home to his soon to be mother Wife. Another man - Harrison Winslow- paces in a grandiose lobby, nervously warming up his voice. Alfre Woodard plucks one of her pajama clad children from the arms of the crazy cat lady next door, and Mrs. Kevin Bacon (whose acting has never really blown me away, though I'm certain she's a lovely person) gets an ultimatum from her long-suffering boyfriend. Meanwhile, a tough looking man with a flashlight breaks into a mansion and starts poking around looking for something.

Kyra changes her mind and boards a bus to catch up with her boyfriend and Harrison finally makes it into the theatre to audition, but chickens out at the last minute and leaves. Alfre has to work the night shift at the switchboard and tucks her kids in bed with a lullaby before boarding the bus. The man who broke into the mansion is caught trying to steal back stamps he's already stolen. The man who hired him to steal said stamps tries to kill him, but only manages to chase him out onto the window ledge. The thief uses his Spidey sense (okay, not really) to leap onto the room of a shorter building. He is unharmed and escapes.

Harrison the singer boards the bus, the expectant parents are en route to the hospital in their own car, and the thief bumps into the child from whom he stole the stamps in the first place. Had this movie been made today (instead of in the early 90s), the child wouldn't have screamed "You stink, Mister!" before angrily peddling away on his bike. Instead he would say something to the effect of, "I'll see you in hell, a$$&*%@!" before the bullets started flying.

The thief seems a little bummed about hurting a kid, and boards a bus, but the driver is too busy watching the couple in the car to his left fondle one another to pay attention to the road. Bus drivers can be perverts like that. The driver loses control and the bus flies over a bridge. The expectant parents become full-blown parents on the side of the road.

Cut to the bus wreckage where the survivors start crawling out . They soon realize they aren't survivors after all when they watch the bus driver float toward heaven and vanish (although I would have preferred watching him get dragged into the depths of hell). Alfre the mother, Milo the burglar, Harrison the singer, and Julia (Kyra) the waitress are sucked into the car with the new parents and their new baby.

Fast forward a year or so and that baby is now an adorable toddler named Thomas. Here we learn that the four spirits are bound to the child; where ever he goes, they go. They are stuck to him by a powerful, invisible force, that forces them to follow him, no matter where he goes. Thomas' father complains that even though they buy him toys, all he wants to do is laugh at the walls. Of course we know the kid's really laughing at his four invisible playmates, who giggle and coo and play with him his every waking moment.

Another time jump shows young Thomas headed for school with his four "imaginary friends." In class, Thomas is able to deliver a dramatic monologue on the Battle of Gettysburg thanks to Harrison's coaching, and the quintet makes good use of the bathroom acoustics by singing a rousting version of "Walk Like A Man," complete with choreography. I cannot tell a lie, I watched this scene about four times. It's pretty darn adorable.

At home, the male spirits have Thomas pull a boggan down over his eyes and flip pages in a dirty magazine for them. Thomas' adventures get back to his parents, and his father insists that the boy isn't normal and needs serious help. The ghosts try to figure out why they're stuck to Thomas. They decide they're hindering him, and it would be in his best interest if they made themselves invisible to him. They wake him up to say goodbye, then one by one they vanish, leaving Thomas alone and crying in his bed and let me tell you something, it is pitiful.

Fast forward again and Thomas has become Robert Downey, Jr., a hard-nosed bank dude who's to busy to call his mother and drives too fast. Grown Thomas is dating Elisabeth Shue, who actually looks a little like Sutton Foster in the face if you hold your mouth right. Thomas is trying to get out of meeting Elisabeth's folks when the ghosts bus finally arrives for the four spirits.

"Let's go, dead people." - Bus Driver

The bus driver is shocked to learn that an angel never informed the ghosts that they were supposed to be using Thomas to help resolve their earthly lives. He tells them they can even enter his body to help things along, then he reluctantly gives them more time to fix their mistakes. The driver leaves - after warning them that he, not unlike Jesus, will return quickly- and the ghosts start trying to get Thomas' attention again. It's no use. They've been silent to him for over 20 years, and have forgotten how to focus together to be seen. Harrison decides they should trying singing "Walk Like A Man" they way they used to when Thomas was a child. They all quietly sing the chorus, but nothing happens. Suddenly, Thomas starts to sing, "oooooOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOOoooooo-ooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" If you've heard the song, you know the part I'm talking about. Thomas gradually starts hearing their voices, then they fade in and he sees all of them. He freaks out and crashes his car into a large concrete flowerpot.

Thomas wakes up in the hospital with a couple of broken ribs. The ghosts ask Thomas to help them, but he refuses.

"He's not that happy to see us." - Harrison

Kyra decides to try taking over his body during an important meeting. She's successful, so Milo tries. Thomas resists and ends up flopping all over the boardroom, royally embarrassing himself. Thomas finally agrees to help.

They start the ball rolling with Milo, who admits to stealing a valuable sheet of stamps from a child. He doesn't want to be a bad guy forever, so they drive to the mansion, Milo inhabits Thomas, steals the stamps, confronts the old man who had him steal them many moons ago, and escapes.

Thomas accidentally mouths off to a traffic cop and gets carted off to jail where outstanding unpaid parking tickets cost him over $3,000. He realizes he's late for his meeting with Elisabeth and her folks and scrambles over there. The parents have already gone, but Thomas manages to smooth things over with Elisabeth and scores a second chance. Milo gets to return to stamps to the child - who is all grown up and portly and nerdy looking- and he finally feels redeemed.

The group sings one last chorus of "Walk Like A Man" and the green bus shows up and takes Milo. Those remaining start looking for Alfre's kids. They happen to drive past a theatre that is featuring B.B. King. Alfre manages to get them inside and Harrison takes over Thomas' body to finally realize his dream of performing for a huge crowd of people. He sings the Star Spangled Banner.

"I'm not goin' anywhere! I'ma DOCTOR!" - Alfre inhabiting Thomas

This just so happens to be the concert Elisabeth and her parents were attending, and the audience gets a big surprise when B.B. King himself joins Harrison/Thomas onstage to play along. The bus pulls up for Harrison, whose performance has received a standing ovation.

Thomas gets carted off to prison again, but managed to get free after paying $300 bail. Shaken after a run-in with the angry Elisabeth, Thomas accidentally backs his car into the desk officer's vehicle. Suddenly we put two and two together and realize that this is Alfre's lost son Billy. It's a sweet moment, and Alfre boards the bus. Billy thinks Thomas is weird, but lets him go anyway.

Thomas and Kyra then go in search of her missing beau, but discover that he's been dead seven years. Kyra figures out that he task is to make sure that Thomas doesn't make the same mistakes that she did. Thomas promises he won't let Elisabeth get away, and Kyra hops on the green bus and waves goodbye.

Thomas manages to make it right with this lady, gives her the keys to his apartment, and the movie ends happily ever after.

I really enjoyed this movie. It's escapist fun, nothing to serious, and Rob Jr. is cute as a speckled puppy. He handles all the character changes extremely well, and he's especially good with the feminine characters. The special effects work pretty well, and I especially love the repeating symbolism of the group's token song. The beginning seemed a little slow. I understand that it's difficult to make an audience care about five or six different people immediately, but I didn't find myself interested in the story until everybody was glued to the baby.

Overall, I give it an A.

Watch it. It's cute.