Fantasy film that never really takes off

They require the precision and finesse of soufflés, but more and more romantic comedies are turned out like so many build-your-own omelettes – surprise-free and forgettable. Fresh off the assembly line, New Line's Over Her Dead Body is a love triangle about a guy and two girls, one of whom is his dead, jealous fiancée.

Writer-director Jeff Lowell's recipe is sound, if uninspired, but the all-important element of chemistry remains elusive. Working with the basic romcom template – man and woman meet under false circumstances, overcome wariness, fall for each other, then split up after the truth surfaces, just long enough to know that they cannot live apart – Lowell has created a premise with a pleasing streamlined simplicity. But he and his cast do little to lift the material beyond the realm of silliness.

A year after an ice sculpture crushed his fiancée to death hours before their wedding, Henry (Paul Rudd) reluctantly lets his ditzy sister, Chloe (Lindsay Sloane), drag him to a psychic.

Chloe hopes that a channeled word of encouragement from his dearly departed will spur him to move on – "moving on" being the new "closure". Henry's resigned himself to a loveless life, and his glumness has affected his work – he's a veterinarian who doesn't particularly like animals. Or that could just be a reflection of how half-baked the film's characters are.

The reading by pretty psychic/caterer Ashley (Lake Bell) is no breakthrough. But Henry's sister secretly appeals to her to try it again, this time armed with the diary of Kate, Henry's deceased love. The ruse gets the better of Henry's wry skepticism. But as sparks ignite between him and Ashley, Kate (Eva Longoria Parker) arrives on the scene, and she's a bossy little ghost.

Having so aggravated her angel guide (Kali Rocha), Kate's still in limbo and decides to meddle with the budding romance. She plays mean tricks on Ashley, intended to be hilarious but they barely raise a smile. Thanks to her psychic gifts, Ashley can see the ghost, and the story devolves into a catfight over a guy.

Ashley gets to vent with her catering assistant, Dan (Jason Biggs), a twist on the thankless role of the best friend. A further third-act twist on this character is ridiculous and mildly creepy.

Despite the film's pop-psych premise, the idea of the difficulty of letting go is a resonant one. But its resonance is limited here by the thinly conceived characters and the fact that we never get a glimpse of what passive Henry and shrill Kate liked, let alone loved, about each other. Vaguely quirky and down-to-earth, Ashley exists mainly as a contrast to Kate's control freak.

Slapstick and when-in-doubt fart jokes don't buoy the proceedings. Rudd is an underappreciated comic actor, and his line readings are the best thing in the film, but the bland role barely taps his talent.

Director Lowell uses off-the-beaten-path Los Angeles locations to evoke a fairy-tale place, but the story never takes off as a flight of fancy.

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