Landscape designer David (Ruffalo) is still mourning the wife he lost to a brain haemorrhage two years before.

Seeking a change of scenery, he moves into a San Francisco apartment whose previous tenant - doctor Reese Witherspoon - is still in a coma following a head-on with a truck.

However, her perky spirit still inhabits the flat...and isn't too happy about David leaving coffee mug rings all over the furniture.

It transpires that he is the only one who can see her...and the only one with the power to persuade her grieving sister not to turn off the life support.

Director Mark Waters is the man behind two of the best chick-flicks of recent memory - Freaky Friday and Mean Girls - but here his sure hand falters.

It's a perfectly agreeable affair, enlivened by decent performances from Ruffalo and Witherspoon and the odd sharp line, but ultimately workmanlike rather than inspired.

In the noble romance-with-a-supernatural-dimension (Ghost, Truly Madly Deeply), there's comic potential but this particular premise totters on the edge of the morbid.

For instance, the scene where Ruffalo wheels a comatose Witherspoon at full tilt down the hospital corridors is more Romero than rom-com.

That said, there's some good lines: Witherspoon - who works 26-hour shifts - insists she's still able to meet men. "I know you are," a friend tells her. "I just want you to meet one that's not bleeding."

So it's not hellish...but then it's not really heavenly. Rom-com purgatory, maybe.

Tim Evans