Heart and Souls

Directed by Ron Underwood, Heart and Souls follows Robert Downey Jr.’s Thomas Reilly as he’s forced to help four ghosts (Charles Grodin’s Harrison, Alfre Woodard’s Penny, Kyra Sedgwick’s Julia, and Tom Sizemore’s Milo) move on to the next realm. It’s a high-concept premise that’s employed to consistently engaging (and often enthralling) effect by Underwood, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay by Brent Maddock, S.S. Wilson, Gregory Hansen, and Erik Hansen, delivers a lighthearted crowd-pleaser that’s been suffused with a whole host of agreeable attributes and elements – with, especially, the uniformly personable performances going a long way towards cultivating (and sustaining) the movie’s thoroughly watchable vibe. (Grodin, Woodard, Sedgwick, and Sizemore are all absolutely terrific here, but it’s Downey Jr.’s compelling, hilarious turn that remains a continuing highlight.) There’s little doubt, as well, that Heart and Souls benefits from its recurring emphasis on scenes and sequences of an impressively captivating bent, and it’s clear, too, that the movie’s proliferation of heart-warming episodes manage to pack a far more pronounced emotional punch than one might’ve anticipated – which, when coupled with a completely satisfying final stretch, cements the picture’s place as a top-notch endeavor that succeeds on every level it attempts.

**** out of ****