‘Just Like Heaven’ a perky romantic comedy

With ’80s bands from Duran Duran to Depeche Mode enjoying a revival, it was only a matter of time before a movie came along that was named after a song by The Cure.

(“Boys Don’t Cry” doesn’t count — the song is too upbeat and the movie is too depressing. There’s no way they’re connected.)

“Just Like Heaven,” though, is the perfect song to go along with a perky romantic comedy. In case you had any doubts, a cover of it plays over the dreamy opening titles. Other Cure tunes — “Killing an Arab,” for example — probably wouldn’t have been so suitable.

But there’s Reese Witherspoon, looking sunny and bright and appropriately otherworldly in her blond radiance — since, after all, she haunts the man who rents her apartment after she’s involved in a serious car accident, and learns more about life and love while in spiritual form than she ever did on Earth.

Sound just like “Ghost,” or “City of Angels,” or “It’s a Wonderful Life?” Yes, “Just Like Heaven” has elements of all of those and “All of Me” as Mark Ruffalo, showing a surprising knack for physical comedy, convulses and flails while struggling with Witherspoon’s ghostly character at a crowded bar over a glass of Scotch.

The whole exercise might have been too precious — and at times its message about the importance of appreciating life is too obvious — if not for the intelligent presence and infinite likability of its two stars.

By now it’s clear that Witherspoon can do pretty much anything, from drama (“The Man in the Moon”) to satire (“Election”) to light humor (“Legally Blonde”), but with “Just Like Heaven” she further solidifies herself as the romantic comedy queen.

Between this and “13 Going on 30,” Ruffalo continues to show his range beyond the dramatic roles in independent films — most notably “You Can Count on Me” — which have earned him justified universal praise. Together they bring weight and tenderness to a movie that could have been as ethereal as the fog that lingers over its San Francisco settings.

And director Mark Waters (“Freaky Friday,” “Mean Girls”) again strikes a comedic tone that is — for the most part — the right balance of sweet and light on its feet, though there are some quiet, down moments that feel a bit too corny. (Audiences will eat all of it up, regardless.)

Adapted from the French novel “If Only It Were True” by Marc Levy, the script from Peter Tolan and Leslie Dixon finds Witherspoon playing a hardworking, highly organized young doctor named Elizabeth — another of her sharp-tongued, Type-A roles, but with a tinge of loneliness and sadness.

Months after she’s involved in a head-on crash while driving to see her older sister (Dina Waters) for dinner, Elizabeth shows up back at her apartment, which Ruffalo’s David is renting. She has no idea what happened to her and doesn’t believe she’s dead — she thinks David’s some homeless guy who’s been squatting at her place. What he’s been doing is drinking beer on the couch and moping around following his wife’s death.

Eventually they wear each other’s defenses down and establish a witty rapport. The funniest moments come when Elizabeth follows David around in public, where no one can see or hear her but him. Everyone just assumes David is losing his mind as he plunges deeper into depression, including his best friend, a party-boy psychiatrist played by an underused Donal Logue.

(“Napoleon Dynamite” star Jon Heder steals all his scenes in a small role as the guy who works at a spiritual bookstore, and the only one who senses Elizabeth’s presence — or so he claims in his laid-back-dude drawl. Think of him as the Whoopi Goldberg figure.)

David agrees to help Elizabeth figure out who she was and what happened to her, which creates some inconsistencies. She knows every detail about her apartment, but can’t recall a thing about the hospital, where she routinely worked shifts of 24 hours or more. Amusingly, though, their search for clues leads them to the house of a married, much older man, prompting her to wonder, “Maybe I was a slut — a lonely, homewrecking slut!”

Of course not. As the heroine of a romantic comedy, Elizabeth must have been an angel.

“Just Like Heaven,” a DreamWorks release, is rated PG-13 for some sexual content. Running time: 97 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.