Plot
Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon), a young doctor whose work is her whole life, is seriously injured in a car accident while on her way to a blind date. Three months later, David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo), a landscape architect recovering from the death of his wife, moves into the apartment that had been Elizabeth's.
Elizabeth begins to appear to David at the apartment. However with ghostly properties and abilities it is clear something is not normal: She can suddenly appear and disappear, move through walls, and once takes over his actions. When they meet, they are both surprised, as Elizabeth is not aware yet of her condition. For the most part, David is the only one who can see Elizabeth, leading others to believe that he is hallucinating and talking to himself.
At first, Elizabeth does not remember anything of her life, and refuses to believe that she is dead. Her memories come back gradually. Together, assisted by Zen-like psychic Darryl (Jon Heder), she and David find out who she is, what happened to her, and why they are connected. They find that her body is in a coma in the hospital. When David discovers that in accordance with her living will, she will soon be taken off life support, he reluctantly tries to prevent this by telling Elizabeth sister that he can see her. It is then revealed that one of Elizabeth's young nieces can also sense her presence although she cannot see her.
When Elizabeth's sister thinks that he is a lunatic and drives him away, David decides to prevent Elizabeth's death by stealing her body from the hospital. He asks J.J, his friend to help him and it is discovered that J.J is actually the former boyfriend of Elizabeth's sister and he had set Elizabeth's blind date with David, the night of the accident. The reason David is the only one who can see Elizabeth is that he was her blind date. He also eventually admits that he loves Elizabeth and that is the reason he doesn't want her to die. While stealing Elizabeth's body, they are eventually discovered in the hospital. The body guards soon find them, pulling David away from Elizabeth's body. He then realizes, that when he was pulled off he had her breathing tube in his hand; he then gets away from the guards, kisses Elizabeth's body and she miraculously wakes up. However, the recovered Elizabeth doesn't remember anything that happened during the coma or any of the events with David, leaving him heartbroken.
Sometime later, Elizabeth goes up to the roof of her apartment, which has been transformed into a beautiful landscaped garden. She sees David there, who had gotten in with the spare key he had kept in order to tend the garden. Just as he is about to leave, she asks for her key back. When their hands touch, her memory of the events during her coma are restored, and they kiss.
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Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)