3 out of 5

Director: Emile Ardolino

This movie is: Feel-good, Romantic. Thats the description on Netflix’s website, and its all you need to know. This is harmless entertainment, and pretty much another take on the mind-switch movies that happened so much in the 80s, but its one or two degrees more grown up and has enough strangeness in its plotting to make it memorable. I tried to explain the plot to a friend and got hopelessly tongue-tied: Louie and Corinne are married. Corinne is pregnant. Louie dies. Louie gets reincarnated as Alex, who grows up not remembering his past life until he meets Miranda, who happens to be Corinnes kid via Louie. Maybe Alex and Miranda almost make out. See how it can get weird? But instead of playing that aspect of it for laughs, the film drops some of the weird elements in and lets you figure it out for yourself, finding comedy instead in the more human discomfort of realizing youre a 20something man in love with a woman twice your age and trying to make piece with both lives youve lived. Surprisingly uncomplicated when viewing, Chances Are allows Shepherd to do her great strong/romantic thing, and Downey still shines as a charmingly talented goofball. Ryan ONeal, Christopher Mcdonald and Mary Stuart Masterson are nicely two-dimensional, but bring enough humanity to it that you let it slide. Not too sappy for guy-watching, and surely enjoyable for the ladies.