JUST LIKE HEAVEN (2005)

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Name of Student: Riva Leah S. Masinadiong

Program/Year Level/Section: BSN-2B

Reflection:
The movie was all about Elizabeth, a young doctor who became a spirit
and David, who was a landscape architect that had a wife who died years ago.
The movie “Just Like Heaven” is a light romantic comedy. It will make you realize
lots of things in life. The movie wasn’t just made to make you smile or to make
you feel sad but also to show us what love can really do. And also it will measure
your patience and trust.
The story started when David moves into an apartment in San Francisco.
And one night, Elizabeth suddenly showed up and then David learned that she is
the one who occupies the apartment before. Elizabeth won’t leave David unless
he will help her to find herself again. And then eventually David helped her. As
time pass by they found Elizabeth’s body and tried everything to bring back her
live. Elizabeth woke up but she didn’t remember David but as they touched their
hands Elizabeth remembered everything.
As I finished the movie it made me think, what if I was David? What if was
in his situation? Will I believe everything that happened? Or what if I was
Elizabeth? What will I do if I found out that I’m a spirit? Will find ways to bring
back my life or I let myself die? I think it will freak me out. But to be honest what I
like the most about the story is the fact that there will always be something or
someone who you will meet unexpectedly then gonna change your life. Someone
you never thought you’ll gonna fallen in love with. Someone who is gonna save
you in times of darkness. Someone who is gonna brought you a new beginning.
Life is full of surprises. Every day we will encounter difficulties that will
measure our capabilities and our will to survive. We must put to our mind that
everything happens for a reason. We die once but we live multiple time so we
should live happily. Move out to your comfort zone and do the things that makes
happy. Do everything that makes you alive.
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Name of Student: Hermitchel Keziah B. Miones

Program/Year Level/Section: BSN-2B

Reflection:
Just like Heaven is the assigned movie for our group. It is an American
light romantic comedy that was released on 2005.
The story is about the man and woman who met by accident. Elizabeth, a
workaholic doctor who has no social life met an accident when driving her way
back home from 26-hour work. David, a lonely landscape designer moves into an
apartment in San Francisco when his wife Laura died suddenly. The two met in
an apartment, became good friends and a lover.
I admire Elizabeth’s dedication to her work and putting sentiment to patients. It
sounds funny but, I like how she’s able to help the man the in the restaurant who
has tension pneumothorax and give an immediate medication through David,
even though she was a ghost. In the other hand, the scene where David perform
an incision on a man’s body made me wonder that how is it possible for a non-
medical practitioner able to perform like that without being questioned by
physician or surgeons after the patient was brought to hospital for proper
surgery. Anyway, it’s not my story afterall.
To see the positive side, it’s like acquiring a free consultation from physician
which gives advices for persons whose lives are unhealthy. I like how Elizabeth
remind David about the over consumption of alcohols, the bad effects it
contributes to his health.
The movie also offers love and spirituality; despite the absence of Elizabeth
physically, they both in love supernaturally.
Overall, it’s a good movie for me because it brings more life lessons, health
advices, knowledge about in hospital settings and also, shows how doctors value
the patients. It also brings pride and honor for the staff of hospital about their
heroic deed for patients.
Lastly, Just like Heaven actually sends valuable message about being swamped
from work and missing out hopes in life that sometimes we forgot to make time
for our social life.
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Name of Student: Gabrielle D. Montesco

Program/Year Level/Section: BSN-2B

Reflection:
As I was about to watch the movie, I was preparing myself to make an
observation about it. Since we all know that we are task to watch a movie in
relation to the topic that we are focusing which is concerned about ethical issues
in nursing and in healthcare.
So the movie title was “Just like heaven”, from the title itself I was quite
excited because I’m a type of a person who likes to watch dramatic or
sentimental movies. I was anticipating something like maybe there will be death,
or a tragedy, or someone may lose someone by an accident things like that. But
what really caught my attention was it involves medical profession wherein the
story started with the life of a doctor. Too little to know what it really likes to be in
a doctor’s life is imaginable. I always admire doctors because I believe they went
through really hard time to reach that title. Not just only they are appreciated by
many because of their achievements but also to their vast knowledge in applying
what they learn in order to save humanity.
The doctor in the movie- Doctor Elizabeth gives us a background check to
what doctors do in the hospital. Busy schedule, time management, pressures
from workloads, dealing with patients. All of it is some of the factors that
contribute to becoming a doctor. You don’t even have some time for yourself
because you spent the rest of your day providing others needs. No one needs to
worry about that, doctors are self-reliant. The movie emphasizes the role of a
healthcare provider as well as the underlying issues that they dealt. By that, you
can say that even in your workplace though all of you are professionals,
competition is always and never been avoided, it’s part of life.
The peak of the story goes like this. Doctor Elizabeth went through an
accident so her colleague- Doctor Brett took over her position as an attending
physician. On the other hand Doctor Elizabeth who is in her 3 months of coma
still alive by the use of a life support oxygen tube. Doctor Brett took advantage of
the situation; this taught us that even in the most crucial event in our life, those
people who we tend to treat them as a friend still can betray us. By letting
Elizabeth’s sister to decide to end her sister’s life; this is autonomy it includes the
rights of the client what choices or decisions to make towards their healthcare.
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This scenario in the movie is referred as withdrawing or withholding life-

sustaining therapy. Thankfully because of the person who truly loved Doctor
Elizabeth- David saved her from the incident.
Of all movies that I have already watched, I realized when a man really is
and truly loves a woman he will do anything just to be with her even if it may put
him to prison by stealing Doctor Elizabeth’s body. A man will do things the way
they wanted, to be with someone who they know that they will be happy and that
is the purest kind of love.
The movie tells us about the reality where not all doctors or healthcare
providers can be trusted. Just like in our current situation where we are
experiencing this pandemic. We received news from other places, people telling
us that some hospitals are in for the money. Instead of helping each other to
raise awareness or help individuals, families or communities to be able to give
fair treatment from any medical institutions. Some say that doctors even help in
spreading the disease. I don’t know it its true or if anything of it was just a false
statement, all I know is that regardless of what status and individual is we all
deserve justice and an honest judgment.
Ethical issues such as: how you are honest in doing your job. How well do
you present yourself in front of your clients, how to be flexible in any given
situations and how you perform your duty according to the standard roles and
guidelines of the hospital as well as obtaining professional values and integrity
are important for a professional to be called as “professional”.
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Name of Student: Florence Alyssa G. Peliño

Program/Year Level/Section: BSN-2B

Reflection:
The movie “Just Like Heaven” portrays some ethical issues that are
relevant to the nursing profession. The end-of-life issues as shown in this movie
are a serious matter that the nursing professionals should be aware of to prepare
themselves in the clinical setting in giving the appropriate and right interventions
that are best addressed the client's healthcare needs. Life is inviolable and so
healthcare professionals in their practice should always keep in mind that their
patient's life depends on their actions towards giving care. They should be careful
in carrying out their interventions and should act following the ethical codes that
are placed for them to follow. In this particular movie, I find it important to be
aware of the ethical issues presenting in the healthcare profession for me to
prepare and ready myself in the clinical setting. Gaining enough knowledge in
this area will help me explore my values and beliefs even more and how my
perceptions in life will influence my interventions in giving care to clients. In this
particular situation where the patient is under a coma and not able to make
interactions, nursing interventions are of the utmost importance not just to the
client but also to their family or relatives participating in assessing the client's
health. Nursing interventions are fulfilled if providing correct information,
assistance, and high quality of care are carried out. On the other hand, I realized
that some ugly businesses may occur in a healthcare institution in which greed
and selfish goals were the only driving force for providing healthcare needs to
patients and that jeopardizing a patient's life may even happen just for achieving
selfish goals. These unethical behaviors should be eliminated in the healthcare
profession, if not completely but at least decrease them in numbers. The only
way to addressed this unethical behavior is through proper education of ethical
codes and also by applying it in the clinical setting. Nursing educators and other
external factors facilitate in building nursing student’s perception of their values
and beliefs which is significant for producing ideal healthcare professionals.
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Name of Student: Czarra Isabela P. Rocolan

Program/Year Level/Section: BSN-2B

Reflection:
The movie started with Elizabeth which is a workaholic doctor who has no
plan to get her life on fire. David on the other hand, a former landscape architect
and now an lonely man. Until one day Elizabeth got into car accident when
driving her way back home. One day, Elizabeth shows up in the apartment where
David are staying in and she claims that the apartment is hers. David thought
that maybe Elizabeth is crazy not until he realize that Elizabeth is a ghost
because of her abilities to get in and out on the wall. Together they both found
out what happened to Elizabeth, and in the process they slowly fall in love with
each other. In addition, the movie also points out the end-of-life ethical issues
when the family of Elizabeth decides to take off her life support.
The movie is excellent and it was a wonderful story. This movie helped me
to realize the autonomy and self-determination of the coma patient just like what
happened to Elizabeth, her family doesn’t have any ideas her desire to live and
the decisions on this kind of situation would be on the hand of her family because
she can’t relay what she really want. It also allowed me to stop for a moment and
reflect on my thinking and perception towards people who has the same situation
as Elizabeth, do they wish to survive or do they wish to stay alive. The story
makes the point that, since we can’t know for sure the spiritual state of a
comatose person, it’s dangerous to assume that they are less than fully alive. An
interesting film indeed which makes me laugh because it has great comedy
scenes, and forgot my problem at the moment and make me also fall in love with
the script. The main character have great chemistry as they alternately pester
then rely on one another. The heart and The mind bond visible for them to feel
comfortable with each other.
This is a movie that everyone can enjoy from beginning to an end. It is
entertaining, genuine, and original, presenting worthwhile love story to life.
There’s an overriding theme of living life to the fullest extent and enjoying every
seconds of it with your loved ones, because each day is a gift with no guarantee
of what tomorrow will bring. It actually send a valuable message about how
important life is and we should also have time for social activities in our life.
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Name of student: Christian Joy I. Sabillo

Program/Year Level/Section: BSN-2B

Reflection:
Just like heaven is a light romantic comedy, a movie where we can realize
that life is short and unpredictable moments may [Link] thing that keep this
film going are its solid story form and structure. Elizabeth Madeson is one of the
main character in the movie, she is always organize, too busy driven by her
desire to excel her duty as a doctor. The rising action of the movie is when she
was hit by the truck that lead her to coma. After that accident, she return as a
spirit. Unfortunately, when she became spirit, she cannot remember who she is
and she have to find herself back at her apartment that already occupied by
David, a man unknown from her.
It is very interesting to watch especially when point came in that only
David can see and hear Elizabeth. As time goes by they were close by each
other, as David want to help Elizabeth, they work together to figure out who
Elizabeth are and why she is haunting [Link] off course there first met is
haunted and confused, they don’t believe each other. Elizabeth is teasing David
because he did not believe what he see and hear. In behalf of that attitude of
Elizabeth toward David, who knows that this two main character slowly fall in love
and try to make their relationship work.
A little further, Elizabeth find a little reminder of her former life. Some of
those paints was been painted by her in an unpleasant light. After more digging,
David and Elizabeth discover that Elizabeth is still alive and in coma. As
expected in the final scene of the movie, David kiss Elizabeth into her lips which
brings sleeping beauty back to life. We all know that this moment is very
interesting but upon awakening, Elizabeth has no memory of David, she resume
her life as what it is before accident.
Elizabeth is no longer in coma, while David builds a beautiful rooftop
garden for Elizabeth without her knowledge. Elizabeth discover the garden then
ask David for the spare key and when they touch each other, Elizabeth finally
understand that she and David were meant together as her memories of her time
in coma back to story. Without spending much time, they kiss and embrace each
other.
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Name of Student: Amenah U. Sagapan

Program/Year Level/Section: BSN-2B

Reflection:
As for the summary of the movie “Just Like Heaven”, here it goes. When
David sublet his quaint San Francisco apartment, the last thing he expected was
a roommate. He had only begun to make a complete mess of the place when a
pretty young woman named Elizabeth suddenly shows up, adamantly insisting
the apartment is hers. David assumes there’s been a giant misunderstanding,
until Elizabeth disappears as mysteriously as she appeared. Changing the locks
does nothing to deter Elizabeth, who begins to appear and disappear at will.
Convinced that she is a ghost, David tries to help Elizabeth cross over to the
“other side.” But while Elizabeth has discovered she can walk through walls, she
is convinced that she is still alive and isn’t crossing over anywhere. As Elizabeth
and David search for the truth about who Elizabeth is and how she came to be in
her present state, their relationship deepens into love. As fate would have it,
Elizabeth slips into a coma following a car accident while en route to visiting her
sister. Since then, she was under life-support while her spirit roams around.
The main ethical issue that revolves in this movie is the “end-of-life issue”.
In this case, Elizabeth, as a doctor, is basically against artificially prolonging life.
Withholding or withdrawing a life-sustaining treatment tends to be very
challenging for health care providers, patients, and their family members alike.
When a patient’s life seems to be nearing its end, it is generally felt that the
morally best approach is to try a new intervention, continue all treatments,
attempt an experimental course of action, in short, do something. However, in the
film, Elizabeth left a will stating that she would forgo from receiving life-support.
Now, her sister, Abby is torn between her feelings and her sister’s living will. As a
family member, I completely understand that it was a hard job for Abby to
consider. I also do not blame her for choosing to terminate her sister’s life-
sustaining treatment, and when she quoted “It’s for the best… This is what
Elizabeth wanted”, I thought to myself, if I am in her position, I would probably do
the same. It's quiet hard to give credit to David’s actions as the movie is tinged
with fantasy and he wouldn’t have done what he did if not for her spirit, so I won’t
talk about him.
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After watching the movie, nothing changed much from what I believe is
morally right and wrong. I think it is very normal for family members to continue
the treatment as it was contributed to their emotional connection to the patient.
On the other hand, I completely understand a person’s right to refuse medical
intervention, especially if the client’s a doctor; because of their profession, most
of them are against it. If there’s one thing that I would really commend from this
movie, it is showing the different types of doctor there is. Elizabeth, is portrayed
as a hardworking, responsible doctor who is genuinely concerned about her
patients. Yes, it’s best to have doctors like her, but whether we like it or not,
there’s always that other doctor – Brett. His role in the movie is a complete
opposite of Elizabeth’s. He’s one of those who kisses their supervisor’s ass just
to have a promotion but doesn’t really put great compassion to his job.
All in all, the movie was great in portraying the emotions needed regarding
the end-of-life issue. Aside from that, I think the movie is pretty average and quiet
predictable. There’s life lessons to learn from here and there but is not really that
impactful.
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Name of Student: Aubrey Joy C. Tan

Program/Year Level/Section: BSN-2B

Reflection:
It is an interesting American romantic comedy fantasy film; at the
beginning, Elizabeth Masterson (Ms. Witherspoon) completes a marathon
emergency room shift and is promptly involved in a car accident. A bit later,
Elizabeth or rather her immaterial but nonetheless talkative spirit barges in on
David Abbott (Mr. Ruffalo), who has been shuffling around her old home, drinking
beer and glancing at her spectacular views of the city and its bay. In this movie I
did not expect what happen to Elizabeth that night when she had a car accident; I
just thought that the next scene would be more serious about the patient’s life
and how Elizabeth as a doctor handle such situations and about unexpected love
will come.
The story becomes more interesting when Elizabeth's spirit begins to
appear to David in the apartment with ghostly properties and abilities that make it
clear that something is not right. She can suddenly appear and disappear, walk
or move through walls and objects, and once takes over his actions- it was really
like a fantasy. When they meet, they are both surprised, as Elizabeth is still
unaware of her recent history and refuse to think she is dead. David tries to have
her spirit exorcised from the apartment, but to no avail. Since only David can see
and hear her, others think that he is hallucinating, getting back into his
alcoholism, and talking to himself. As time pass by David and Elizabeth already
know what is their purpose or what is the reason behind those things happen to
them.
The most lovely and romantic part in the movie is when David frantically
kisses the dying Elizabeth, breathing some air into her lungs, while her spirit
begins to fade away. Then, amazingly, her heartbeat returns and she
miraculously awakens from the coma. And lastly, when their hands touch, her
memories of the events during her coma are restored, and they kiss.
After watching the movie it made me think of, what if I was Elizabeth?
Who doesn’t even know what happen to her because she’s in coma. What does
it feel to meet unexpected person or people inside your home or apartment? And
also, what would be my reaction if I saw myself can suddenly appear and
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disappear, walk or move through walls and objects. Those fantasies made me
realize that in life we face unexpected things that might blow are minds away.
Life is full of unexpected surprises. Sometimes you can’t help the people
you meet. You can have pleasant experiences, and other times they can be
devastating. But always remember that everything happens for a reason. We
must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is
waiting for us.
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Name of Student: Suzanne Jean G. Yu

Program/Year Level/Section: BSN-2B

Reflection:
Dr. Elizabeth Masterson is a fastidious workaholic at a San Francisco
hospital. Married to marathon shifts and little else, this good-hearted, socially
detached physician is on the brink of a career coup when a car accident cuts her
plans short. Several months later a young architect named David Abbott can’t
seem to find a furnished apartment that meets his needs. Fate directs the
grieving widower to Elizabeth’s pad, which her sister, Abby, wants to rent out on
a month-to-month basis. It suits him. David settles in, only to get a shocking visit
from the apartment’s previous tenant, a spooky stranger who, in a state of
metaphysical flux, fails to realize that life has moved on without her.

Elizabeth’s professional ethic is terrific. She cares more for her patients
than for her own comforts. She’s smart, sensitive and sweats the details. She
also shares playful moments with her nieces and, upon seeing a mother and
child in the park, says wistfully, “I think I would’ve liked to have been a mom.”
When David drowns his sorrows in beer, Elizabeth acts as his conscience,
condemning his reliance on alcohol. 
There’s an overriding theme of living life to the fullest and enjoying loved
ones, because each day is a gift with no guarantee of what tomorrow will bring.
The film condemns both workaholism and selfish ambition. Also, Elizabeth
rediscovers who she is by hearing friends, family and co-workers talk about her,
which will no doubt cause viewers to wonder what their own legacy might be if
told by those close to them. With Elizabeth’s help, the squeamish David tries to
save a man’s life with emergency surgery. With selflessness and creativity, David
makes a grand romantic gesture to the woman he loves.
The story makes the point that, since we can’t know for sure the spiritual
state of a comatose person, it’s dangerous to assume that they are less than fully
alive. Formerly against being sustained by artificial means, Elizabeth is suddenly
opposed to anyone pulling her plug, yet is helpless to alert them that she’s “still
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here.” Director Mark Waters isn’t preachy with this pro-life message. Still, the
need to protect the humanity of people on life support comes through loud and
clear.