How often do you find a film where everybody is so nice that you just root for them to find happiness regardless of the situation? That's the case for the widowed Cybil Shepherd, a Smithsonian curator so deeply in love with her late husband (Chris McDonald) that she's been in therapy for decades trying to get over his sudden death. Along comes Robert Downey Jr. Who appears to be McDonald's reincarnation, now dating Shepherd's daughter, Mary Stuart Masterson. Shepherd and McDonald's best friend, Ryan O'Neal, has stuck around for decades, always in love with Shepherd but unable to tell her. When Downey realizes the truth upon coming back to his (or McDonald's) old home, the old memories come back and this puts all four leading characters into a very precarious predicament.

"I'm so ripe I'm about to fall off the vine", Shepherd tells her therapist, James Noble. But is she so ripe that she would take away her daughter's boyfriend just because of an accident of reincarnation? Certainly the way McDonald was killed right in front of Shepherd's eyes is an understandable reason for her unable to accept the loss, and their love was so pure that you can feel her pain coming off of her like a grape from the vine.

There are other aspects of this film that makes it a fantasy comedy well worth seeing and filled with emotions that can make it both funny and tear jerking at the same time. Of course there's the classic Johnny Mathis song that opens up the film, but there's also the newly written song "After All", sung by Cher and Peter Cetera that is one of the greatest movie theme songs not to win the Academy Award. It's one of those songs that upon hearing it inside or out of the movie will create a dewy feeling.

Then there is veteran character actress Fran Ryan playing a Washington matron whom Downey charms, dancing her into a tizzy as she gets more and more rambunctious but unable to keep up with the much younger man. A plot line involving McDonald witnessing a judge with an organized crime lord seems thrown in for no good reason, but it does have a point that you need to stick with to see it unfold. Veteran character actors Henderson Forsythe, Dennis Patrick and Josef Summer also figure into the plot in important smaller roles, and the wonderful Kathleen Freeman is very funny in her bit role as the Yale library manager.

The sequence in heaven will remind you immediately of "Heaven Can Wait", but it is very funny with confusion allowing McDonald/Downey to be reincarnated without having his previous life memory removed. This is a film that is pleasing on so many levels, mostly spiritually because it reminds us of the power of love that never leaves our soul just because someone has been taken away from us in earthly form.

The lawyer Louie (Christopher McDonald) and the museum curator Corinne (Cybill Shepherd) are in love with each other. Corinne is pregnant and Louis schedules to have dinner in a restaurant with his beloved wife. However, a car hits him and he dies. He awakes in heaven and asks to reincarnate a.s.a.p. to be with Corinne. However the angel forgets to erase his memory when he returns to Earth. Twenty-three years later, Corinne has not forgotten Louis; she has a daughter, Miranda (Mary Stuart Masterson) that is in law school; and Louis´ best friend Philip (Ryan O'Neal) is close to the family. One day, Alex (Robert Downey Jr), who is Louis´ reincarnation, stumbles upon Miranda and fells attracted for her. She invites him to meet her family and he sees Corinne, bringing recollection and the feelings of his previous life. What will Alex do?

"Chances Are" is a delightful romantic comedy from the 80´s. It is impressive how creative were the writers and screenwriters in this decade. Even thirty and something years later, these comedies are still cult. "Chances Are" is no exception and it is a tremendous family entertainment in the present days. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Céu se Enganou" ("The Heaven Has Mistaken")

Chances Are is a charming, weird, clichéd and even a little bit perverse romantic comedy.

Louie Jeffries (Christopher McDonald) is a lawyer who has uncovered a bent judge and suddenly dies in a road accident in 1964. He is reborn as Alex Finch (Robert Downey Jr) but in 1987 he meets Louie's daughter Miranda at Yale University and later his wife, Corinne and when he visits his old house for dinner, Louie's memories later return to Alex. He realises he is Louie Jeffries, Corinne's dead husband reincarnated as he has memories of events only Louie would had known.

However it seems that Alex is not meant to get back together with Corinne but rather help her move on especially as their best friend Philip Train (Ryan O'Neal) a Washington Post journalist has always loved Corinne and help raise Miranda but Corinne has never got over her dead husband.

At the time, Chances Are was a feel good comedy, well acted but stretched credibility and Alex falling for Miranda (Louie's daughter) was a little bit icky.