Bring your Dirt Devil to "Ghost Dusters...."

Judging this movie by the cover, I almost went to sleep and missed a profoundly moving story. Fortunately, I stuck around. Of course, I should have realized that a director who could produce such wholesomely romantic stories as "First Knight" and "My Best Friend's Wedding" had to have some talent -- even if I was seeing his work in rewind mode. Within minutes, the chemistry of Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore had me "stuck" to the couch for the duration.

Patrick and Demi as "Sam" and "Molly," begin the movie as ordinary lovers -- not quite close enough to marry. But almost. They have just moved into a new and bigger place and they are working to renovate it. That's their home life, for now.

Outside the home, Sam is a successful businessman with a partner named Carl (Tony Goldwyn). Molly is a talented artist who makes a living selling her pottery work.

Just as we feel that the romance is finally shaping up for "the long haul" -- along with Molly's pottery -- Sam is murdered in a supposed mugging attempt. Because of his love for Molly, he chooses to remain on earth as a ghost, invisible to all in a seemingly unchanged world.

At this point in the story, your ideas of ghosts (or the lack of them) will be gingerly taken off the shelf, dusted off, and examined for wear and tear....

A frustrated and very inept (as a ghost) Sam follows Molly around trying and hoping to somehow comfort her in her grief. Along the way, he discovers that his death was planned by someone close to him. And he realizes that Molly is also in danger.

As he happens upon a bogus medium, Oda Mae (Whoopi), he and she together find that they can communicate. Because of Sam's insistence, Oda Mae then begins communicating to and gaining the trust of Molly by telling her secrets -- at Sam's prompting -- that only the two of them shared.

(Whoopi definitely deservedly received her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress because of her humorous handling of a very unknown and therefore uncomfortable subject of mediums and the spirit world.)

After a long and frustrating sequence of attempts at communication, Sam finally is able to not only rescue Molly from danger but also frustrate the two evil plotters of his death to their very own. He watches in horror as black demons rise from the ground and carry each away to their eternal dwelling places.

Resolution comes finally when Sam and Molly can see and hear and touch each other for the last time before Sam must go to heaven. The ending not only satisfies an audience grasping for terra firma after a tense and weary ride through the afterlife, but it provides hope that love does continue on after death.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone seeking a deep and satisfying love story. However, I will warn you to bring your "Dirt Devil" because your Ghost beliefs will either end up holey or wholly dusted.