Ghost - 3 Stars (Good) - with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.

Why "Ghost" Appeals to Our Fervent and Subtle Imagination

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Ghost - 3 Stars (Good)

Ghost is everything that is right about a really scary movie. There are clearly good guys and bad guys, there is uncertainty about whether all of the good guys will be standing at the end of the movie, there is romance, there is sacrifice, there is redemption, there is the surreal to deal with, there is trying to stay grounded in reality, there is good and evil, and there is the eternal question of whether good will triumph in the end.

Ghost begins innocently enough as Sam (Patrick Swayze) and Molly (Demi Moore) have a romance heading toward marriage when he is killed by a thug during a mugging. Upon death Sam experiences an out-of-body awareness that he has not left this world, he can see as if he is here, but no one can see or hear him.

Sam's out-of-body experience in Ghost works because Sam is not only an observer of what is happening, but he is a participant in the story line of the existing action.

Sam does not realize that Carl (Tony Goldwyn), his co-worker at the bank, has hired Willie (Rick Aviles) the mugger to relieve Sam of his wallet, which contains the passwords to the bank accounts of well-heeled customers. Carl needs the passwords because he is tied to a drug money laundering operation and will be killed if he does not accomplish the transaction on time.

Only later does Sam hear his friend Carl scold Willie for bungling the job by not getting the passwords and killing Sam in the process.

Sam then realizes that Molly is Carl and Willie's next target because they think the passwords remain in Molly's apartment. Sam is temporarily able to keep Molly out of harm's way but must find a way to communicate to her the danger that lurks ahead.

His answer lies in the discovery of Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), a scam spiritualist who, much to her surprise and distress, can hear Sam but not see him. So it is up to Oda Mae, through Sam's knowledge and credibility, to convince Molly that her life is in danger.

Oda Mae goes a little crazy with her new newfound ability, but eventually, with Sam's help, warns Molly of her imminent danger. Carl wants the passwords and will kill Molly to get them, especially after Sam and Oda Mae thwart his ability to move money through the bank.

The ending to Ghost is simply too good and too surprising to share here, the suspense is spellbinding and the result is worth the trauma. Ghost is a romantic movie set as a drama with danger. Ghost also gets better as it goes along, so you need to hang in there to appreciate what happens.

Ghost is a movie we want to believe. We buy into it because of Sam and Molly's relationship, we grab it and hold on when tragedy strikes, then we want to let go when danger sets in, and Ghost will not let us go, we are doomed to ride with the eventual fate of the story. The ending proves this is a great movie that is worth our attention, hence our fervent and subtle imagination is satisfied and at rest when the curtain closes.

Whoopi Goldberg manages to turn her performance into an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, and the screenplay writer, Bruce Joel Rubin, also won an Oscar. This is one of the best screenplays I have seen, and Rubin certainly deserved to take home the hardware.

I almost gave Ghost a 4, my highest ranking, but kept it at 3, reserving the right to raise its ranking at a later date, something that is certain to happen should I have any out-of-body experiences in my future.

Plot (Source Wikipedia)
Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze), a banker, and Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) are a loving couple living in New York City.

Sam discovers discrepancies in some accounts at his firm. He advises friend and colleague Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn), who offers to investigate, but Sam decides to investigate himself. Soon afterwards Sam and Molly are mugged by Willy Lopez (Rick Aviles). Sam is killed, but remains on Earth as a ghost.

Sam meets Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), a con artist posing as a medium. Sam realizes that she can hear him. Sam learns the attack on him was planned. Oda Mae tries convincing Molly that Sam's ghost is warning her of the dangerous scheme Willy is involved in, but Molly is skeptical. Carl learns of this and convinces Molly that Oda Mae is a fraud. Sam learns that Carl planned his murder. Carl was behind a money laundering scheme at the bank that Sam's investigation jeopardized.

When Carl tries seducing Molly an angered Sam lashes out, inadvertently knocking over a portrait in the apartment. Sam enlists the help of a subway ghost (Vincent Schiavelli) to master the skill of moving solid objects. Sam convinces Oda Mae to thwart Carl's plan by impersonating the owner of Carl's fake account and withdraw the total funds from, and then close, the account.

Molly has visited the police about Sam's murder, but they convince her that it is a confidence trick concocted by Oda Mae, a known fraud. Carl tries accessing the bank account but finds it closed. Sam makes his presence known to Carl, who soon realizes what is happening. He announces to Sam that if the money is not returned he will kill Molly.

Sam makes his way to Oda Mae's apartment to warn her of danger from Carl and Willy. Sam catches Willy there, terrorizing him. Willy runs into the street and is hit by a truck and killed. Oda Mae and Sam return to Molly's apartment, convincing her that Oda Mae is telling the truth. Oda Mae allows Sam and Molly to be together one final time. Carl arrives in a murderous rage and Molly and Oda Mae flee. Sam, weakened after inhabiting Oda Mae, is too drained to retaliate.

Sam regains his strength and aids Molly and Oda Mae, defeating Carl. His quest over, Sam says one final farewell and goes to heaven.

Cast
Patrick Swayze as Sam Wheat
Demi Moore as Molly Jensen
Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown
Tony Goldwyn as Carl Bruner
Vincent Schiavelli as the Subway Ghost
Rick Aviles as Willy Lopez
Angelina Estrada as Rosa Santiago

Stephen Root and the director's mother Charlotte Zucker have cameo roles, as does Phil Leeds as the hospital ghost.

Breakfast at Tiffany's - 3 Stars (Good) with Audrey Hepburn

Grace and Humility Personified

Hollywood's Most Perfect Actress Had 
Beauty, Fashion, Grace and Humility

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

Was there ever an actress who combined these four timeless qualities—beauty, fashion, grace and humility—better than Audrey Hepburn?

I think not, especially when I see her again in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Even an actress who could come close (and I can think of none) would in no way match the humility of Audrey Hepburn. We shall not see another like her in our lifetime and by then the film industry may be on the way out when some newer, better technology unknown to us today arrives.

All the more reason to purchase her five most memorable movies in DVD now while they are still available.

First would be her Oscar winning Best Actress performance in Roman Holiday opposite Gregory Peck, which was also her first starring role in an American film.

The next four would be her Best Actress Oscar nominations for Sabrina, The Nun's Story, Wait Until Dark (one of the two scariest movies I have ever seen) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (the Oscar went to Sophia Loren for Two Women).

Breakfast at Tiffany's had two great assets, Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, the young New York socialite (we say socialite because this movie was released in 1961, 45 years ago), and Director Blake Edwards, whose deft, sensitive handling of Hepburn's character (a high-priced prostitute) could not have been done better.

Holly Golightly's beauty, sense of fashion and pure innocence prohibit me from thinking of her as a woman of the night. She is so inherently stylish. God has not made a woman that could wear clothes better than Audrey Hepburn.

She has Holly Golightly floating around in Givenchy gowns with matchless grace and glamour.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is based on Truman Capote's novel with the screenplay by George Axelrod, who also garnered an Oscar nomination.

Henry Mancini (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) teamed up to win an Oscar for the Original Song "Moon River" while Mancini earned another Oscar as well as a Grammy for Best Musical Score.

The story line has the two romantic interests dependent upon others for financial support, Holly as a lady of the night and Paul Varjak (George Peppard), a wannabe writer who is kept by the married and wealthy Mrs. Failenson (Patricia Neal). Eventually Holly and Paul experience some personal growth and find love together.

There are matchless moments in this film that find places forever in your heart. One is Hepburn sitting on the fire escape plaintively singing "Moon River," especially when you remember that the theme of your high school senior prom was Moon River, and that you were with the girl you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. It is a rare opportunity to hear Hepburn sing in the movie.

She recorded singing vocals for her role as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady only to discover that professional "singing double" Marni Nixon had overdubbed all of her songs.

Hepburn was not nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in this film, but her love interest Rex Harrison won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Professor Henry Higgins.

The "little black dress" worn by Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's was designed by Givenchy and sold at Christie's auction this year (2006) for $920,000 with the proceeds going to aid underprivileged children in India. It was not the one worn by Hepburn in the movie.

The only two dresses she wore are now in the Givenchy archives and the Museum of Costume in Madrid, Spain.

In Audrey Hepburn's performance there are times when we are delighted by sweet innocence in a woman. You cannot imagine how difficult this is to find in today's world.

Audrey Hepburn became a beauty and fashion icon, and although she did enjoy fashion, she placed little importance on it, preferring casual and comfortable clothes away from the bright lights and cameras.

I do want to give Breakfast at Tiffany's an Excellent rating but cannot because of too many flaws in the film. I can easily give Audrey Hepburn an Excellent rating for her performance as Holly Golightly.



After 15 years as a highly successful actress Audrey Hepburn chose to lead a quieter life far away from Hollywood. She was married twice, first to actor Mel Ferrer and then to Italian doctor Andrea Dotti and had a son with each.

Hepburn was Belgian by birth and would grow up with her mother in The Netherlands, nearly starving to death during the Nazi occupation in World War II when the Dutch food and fuel supplies were cut off. Tragically, she suffered through watching her uncle and cousin being shot to death for being part of the Resistance movement.

She rose from the horrific atrocities of her youth to find fame and fortune in America and in the last four years of her life (1988 to 1992) became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund).

Only four months before her death from abdominal cancer she went on a mission to Somalia and was devastated to see the nightmare of famine and carnage.


Audrey Hepburn was the picture of beauty, fashion and grace but never for a minute let her success go to her head, and most certainly never led a Hollywood lifestyle of overblown debauchery so much in evidence in moviemaking and Tinseltown today.


See Breakfast at Tiffany's because Audrey Hepburn became an important contributor to our time and culture. She not only represented the best in professional growth but made her life a legacy with her personal growth. She was a model of grace and humility in a world with little of either.




Some details about the film (source Wikipedia):
Directed by: Blake Edwards
Produced by: Richard Shepherd and Martin Jurow
Written by: 1 - Screenplay: George Axelrod, 2 - Novella: Truman Capote
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen
Music by: Henry Mancini
Cinematography: Franz F. Planer
Editing by: Howard Smith
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release date(s): October 5, 1961
Running time: 115 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $2.5 million
Gross revenue: $14 million

Plot (source Wikipedia):
Early on a fall morning, a lone taxicab deposits Holly Golightly at the Tiffany's jewelry store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Holly eats a pastry and drinks coffee while admiring the window displays, then strolls home.
At her brownstone apartment building, Holly successfully fends off her date from the night before, who has been waiting in his car all night and is angry that she disappeared during their evening together. Holly then meets Paul Varjak, a new tenant. After feeding her nameless pet cat, Holly chats with Paul as she hurriedly prepares to visit Sing Sing prison, a weekly routine from which she earns $100 for an hour's conversation with Sally Tomato, an incarcerated mob boss. Holly does not seem to realize that she is passing coded messages for Sally's drug ring.

Outside the brownstone, Mrs. Failenson (referred to as "2E" throughout the film) arrives and is introduced as Paul's "decorator." Holly drops by to escape a drunken date and sees Mrs. Failenson leave money and kiss Paul goodbye. It is revealed that Paul is a writer who hasn't been published since 1956 and that Holly, at the age of 14, ran away from home with her brother Fred, who is in the army.

Paul attends a wild party at Holly's, where he is introduced to José da Silva Pereira, a handsome, rich Brazilian, and to Rusty Trawler, a pudgy, rich American. Paul also meets O. J. Berman, who is Holly's "agent." O.J. tells him about Holly's transformation from a country girl with a thick accent into a classy Manhattan socialite, but adds that she is a wild spirit, difficult to pin down, and still can't tell if she is "a phony."

Holly is accompanied by Paul to visit Sally at the Sing Sing prison. Back home, Paul can hear Holly singing "Moon River" from her windowsill. Mrs. Failenson rushes into Paul's apartment, worried about a strange man outside.

Paul is trailed by the man when he leaves the apartment. They confront one another in Central Park. The man introduces himself as Doc, claiming to be Holly's husband. He married her—real name Lula Mae Barnes—when she was turning 14 and explains that he has come to New York to take Holly back home to Texas, where he feels she rightly belongs. Holly later explains to Paul that the marriage was annulled. She puts a dejected Doc on a bus to Texas, but only after he warns her that he will no longer support her brother Fred, who is being released from the Army soon.



A partial screenshot of Audrey Hepburn from the film


At a bar, a drunken Holly explains her feeling of responsibility for Fred. She decides to marry Rusty Trawler for his money, but then discovers that Rusty has married someone else. Holly and Paul then spend a carefree, romantic day together, visiting the library and going to Tiffany's, where they have a cheap ring from a box of Cracker Jack engraved. They share a kiss when they arrive home, and it is implied that they spend the night together.

The next day, Paul informs Mrs. Failenson that he no longer needs her. But now, a money-hungry Holly plans to marry José, which angers Paul.

Holly and José return to her apartment one night and find a telegram notifying her of Fred's death. Holly trashes her apartment in grief and her behavior disturbs José.

Months pass. Paul has moved out of the brownstone. He is invited to dinner by Holly, who is leaving the next morning for Brazil. They suddenly are arrested by police in connection with Sally's drug ring. Holly spends the night in lock-up.

The next morning, Paul is waiting with a taxi when she is released from jail. He is in possession of both Cat and a letter from José, in which the rich Brazilian breaks off the relationship due to her headline-making arrest. An emotional Holly impulsively orders the driver to stop and she throws Cat out into the pouring rain.

Paul tells Holly what he thinks of her behavior and leaves the cab. Holly runs after him and together they find Cat and embrace.


Cast (source Wikipedia):
Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly
George Peppard as Paul Varjak
Patricia Neal as Mrs. Failenson/Emily Eustace (2E)
Buddy Ebsen as Doc
Martin Balsam as O.J. Berman
Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi
Alan Reed as Sally Tomato
Orangey as "Cat" (trained by Frank Inn)

Pardon Me, 

I Am Gushing Again About 

Hollywood's Incomparable Actress: 

Audrey Hepburn

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley


Like a lot of shoppers at supermarkets, I look at the magazine displays while waiting in line to check out. Recently I was thrilled to see a recent edition to LIFE's Great Photographers Series: Remembering Audrey 15 Years Later with photographs by Bob Willoughby.

In my review of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" I posed this question: Was there ever an actress who combined these four timeless qualities—beauty, fashion, grace and humility—better than Audrey Hepburn? My answer was simply, I think not.

You better believe I bought a copy of Remembering Audrey faster than a single heartbeat, and remain a better person for having done so.

Willoughby was born in Los Angeles—the city of the stars—and began taking pictures when he was 12. He was good, very good, and best described as a prodigy. In 1953, when he was 26, he would be assigned to photograph an upcoming soon to be actress, Audrey Hepburn. The result of their meeting would produce one of his most positive relationships, both as a photographer and a friend.

Willoughby pioneered the role of the "special" photographer to take formal publicity shots and candids of the stars Hollywood's publicity departments wanted to promote. He was credited by Popular Photography magazine as the man "who virtually invented the photojournalistic motion-picture still."

The images that you remember of James Dean, Frank Sinatra, Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn among dozens of others were mostly the work of Bob Willoughby. All of the major magazines of the day—LIFE, Look, Saturday Evening Post and Harper's Bazaar—published his work.

Willoughby's creations grace the exhibits in more than 500 museums in more than 50 countries around the world.

When first meeting Audrey, Willoughby said, "She took my hand and dazzled me with a smile that God designed to melt mortal men's hearts.

"The amazing instant contact she always made was a remarkable gift, and I know from talking to others that it was felt by all who met her."

Audrey had made a big impression with the studio brass in the 1953 William Wyler film "Roman Holiday". She won an Oscar for Best Actress as Princess Ann in her film debut playing opposite Gregory Peck.

In the next 15 years, she would be nominated for 4 Best Actress Oscars for her work as Sabrina Fairchild in "Sabrina" (1954), Sister Luke in "The Nun's Story" (1959), Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961), and Susy Hendrix in "Wait Until Dark" (1967).

She also won a Golden Globe for Best Drama Actress in Roman Holiday and had an additional 6 Golden Globe nominations as Best Actress. Lesser known is the fact that Audrey was one of the few entertainers to have won an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony Award as well as an Oscar.

Bob Willoughby's formal and candid photographs of Audrey Hepburn will stand the test of time as some of the greatest ever taken of a woman and an actress. He said that Audrey never took a bad photograph, or even a mediocre one.

"She could sit next to an old ladder on the set and look terrific," said Willoughby. With designs by Hubert de Givenchy, the world's most smashing woman wore the world's most smashing fashions.

She became the most charming, disarming, altogether friendly and charismatic superstar ever to grace a Hollywood production. According to Willoughby, everyone liked Audrey and remained loyal to her. The best directors and the world's greatest designers sought to work with her.

It was said that all of her leading men fell in love with her, including Gregory Peck, William Holden, Anthony Perkins, Rex Harrison and Albert Finney.

When making "My Fair Lady" Audrey would not be recognized for her role as Eliza Doolittle. She had been promised that she could sing her songs in the film, but Marni Nixon was ultimately contracted to perform Eliza's vocals.

Julie Andrews had played the role of Eliza in the stage production of the Lerner and Loewe musical, but she lost the role to Audrey in the film. It was perhaps no accident that the Best Actress Oscar that year went to Julie Andrews for her role as Mary Poppins.

My Fair Lady cost $17 million to make in 1964, an astounding investment in its day. It became Warner Brothers highest-grossing film at the time, and would go on to earn 12 Oscar nominations and win 8 Oscars. Many film historians consider My Fair Lady to be the last great musical of Hollywood's studio era.

Audrey would marry twice and have a son by both Mel Ferrer, the actor/director, and Andrea Dotti, an Italian psychiatrist. She suffered 4 miscarriages during her 13-year marriage to Mel Ferrer.

In her early life, Audrey's parents would divorce and her mother took her and her two stepbrothers to London and then to the Netherlands, where her mother was a bona fide Dutch baroness. In 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands and the horror of war would surround her.

She danced in clandestine locations to raise money for the Dutch Resistance. One of her stepbrothers was sent to a German labor camp, and her uncle and one of her mother's cousins were shot and killed for participating in the Resistance.

The Germans seized food and fuel when the Netherlands was already suffering a winter famine. Audrey would suffer malnutrition, anemia and frequent bouts of depression. She was 10 years old when World War II started and remained fragile her entire life as a result of her wartime experience.

Some believe her final act in life was her best when she was named UNICEF's International Goodwill Ambassador in 1988. Audrey would travel around the world on 50+ missions to bring attention to the world's suffering children. The sight of children dying from hunger in distant lands was devastating; she had once been one of those children and survived.

"I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering," said Audrey. Despite being terribly ill herself, she continued to go on missions. She would die of colon cancer in 1993, four months before her 64th birthday. When she died, the world lost a great human being.

Bob Willoughby said it best: "She left those who came into contact with her better for having known her. I miss her to this day." Amen, Bob, amen.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven – 2 Stars (Average)

The Five People YouMeet in Heaven"
Is Difficult to Understand But Rewarding

For anyone who has read Mitch Albom's book Tuesdays With Morrie, it was axiomatic to read The Five People You Meet in Heaven and then see the movie.

Albom was asked why it took him so long between his first two books, he said "To be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed by Tuesdays' success. At first, nobody wanted to publish that book or talk much about it.

"Then, suddenly, all anyone wanted me to do was write a sequel. I knew I didn't want to do that. I said everything in that book that I had to say about the last class between Morrie and me. So I waited until something inspired me the way that book did. It just happened to take six years."


When asked if anything Morrie had said led to the story line of "Five People" he revealed the fact that "Morrie often told a story about waves, and how when they hit the shore they ceased to exist—unless you realized that, in truth, they weren't really waves at all, they were part of the ocean.


"Morrie saw himself that way, as part of something connected to a bigger humanity. In the Five People, I sort of explore that idea, that we are all connected to each other in ways we don't even realize, and that perhaps, when your life is over, you may find out all the other 'waves' in this big ocean that you affected without even knowing it."


These insights show the integrity and sensitivity of Mitch Albom, who also penned the movie script for his book. Albom works for the Detroit Free Press and is arguably one of best sportswriters in the United States. His work in "Five People" shows flashes of his pure writing talent.


The Five People You Meet in Heaven is the story of Eddie (Jon Voight), a simple man living a simple life as a maintenance man who has a regret and an ache in his heart.



He spends his entire life berating himself because he never left the amusement park to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer. He blames everyone but himself for not getting on in the world. This is his regret, and he feels that his life has been wasted.


Eddie dies on his 83rd birthday while trying to save a little girl from a falling cart in a roller coaster ride gone bad, and develops an ache in his heart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his as he tries to pull the girl away—and then nothing.


He dies not knowing if he saved the girl’s life or not.


He awakens in Heaven and is destined to meet five people, loved ones and distant strangers who form a thread in his life that when woven into a fabric explain the meaning of his life.


Each person shares with Eddie a lesson in life that he failed to learn on Earth.


Albom's writing skills shine through in these memorable quotes from the five characters:


Ruby: "Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that by hating someone we hurt them. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do to others, we also do to ourselves."


Blue Man: "There are no random acts. We are all connected. You can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind."


Blue Man: "In heaven, there is no judgment, but rather an opportunity to examine our lives—who we touched, the choices we made, and the consequences of those choices.


" Blue Man: "Strangers are family you have yet to come to know."


Marguerite (Eddie's wife who precedes him in death): "Lost love is still love, Eddie. It just takes a different form, that's all. You can't hold their hand, you can't tousle their hair. But when those senses weaken another one comes to life. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You hold it. You dance with it. Life has to end, Eddie. Love doesn't."


Be forewarned that The Five People You Meet in Heaven can and probably will bring tears to your eyes, and make your throat retract and become sore with tension. This is no movie for children of any age, adults can hardly deal with it and attempt to understand the subject matter and significance of its message.


This movie has an incredible ending that allows Eddie to finally understand the meaning of his life. I will not reveal the ending here, you must see the ending to earn its blessing.


This is an extremely complicated story, and the movie does not make the story any easier to understand and follow. It forces us to examine our existence here on earth; however, the story and the movie are worth the effort if you have any spiritual development.


The only other movie I have seen more complicated to understand is The Hours, which was far more miserable, depressing and dramatically overdone despite some serious Oscar attention (Best Actress Oscar for Nicole Kidman and 8 other nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director Stephen Daldry, Best Supporting Actor Ed Harris and Best Supporting Actress Julianne Moore).


Because of its complexity The Five People You Meet in Heaven earned little, if any, critical acclaim or accolades. This is why I write reviews. With no one to sing its praises, the voice of understanding goes silent. Silence is a void that is unbearable.


Perhaps Albom's effort falls short of reaching more people because he is a writer and not a philosopher. A writer like Albom can craft a beautiful sentence that a reader like me can appreciate. A philosopher can craft another sentence that immediately strikes a chord with nearly everyone.


Great poets often achieve this heartfelt effect, perhaps they are philosophers too.


I would have given The Five People You Meet in Heaven a 3 rating in a heartbeat (very high in my system) if it were not so difficult for viewers to digest and appreciate. I would see this movie again, and was a better person for having seen it the first time.


(Note from Mary-Ann: I have read the book and seen the film and I was very touched by it an even though I know I will have to read the book and watch the movie again before I completely understand all of it, it made me feel good nonetheless. If you are on a spiritual path you will love this film.)




Plot summary (source Wikipedia):
The story is about a simple man named Eddie. He is the Head of Maintenance at Ruby Pier, an amusement park along the seaside. Eddie is described as gruff and coarse in appearance, though somewhat warm towards the children who populate the pier. 
The story begins with Eddie's last day on Earth — his eighty-third birthday. As he goes about his everyday routine, a sudden scream near a tower drop ride alerts him to danger — one of the cars has come loose, suspended hundreds of feet in the air. As other workers rush to free the passengers of the ride, Eddie realizes that the cable that supports the car must have somehow come unraveled; he is right in this assumption, as weeks earlier, a young man accidentally lost his car keys in the ride, causing the cable to be husked like an ear of corn.

Eddie tries to warn his maintenance assistants not to release the brakes of the ride, but his voice is lost in the crowd so no one can hear his shouts. When the brakes are freed, the car comes hurtling toward the boardwalk. Eddie notices a little girl frozen in fear beneath the car; he dives to save her, and manages to push her out of the way - saving her life - though he himself fails to move and is killed by the falling cart.

Eddie finds himself transported to Heaven, which strangely looks like the Ruby Pier of his childhood. While there, he encounters a strange face: the Blue Man, or Joseph Corvelzchik, a "freak" in Ruby Pier's old freak show. The Blue Man explains that Heaven is not the Eden — like atmosphere often imagined; rather, it is a personal journey. Five different individuals are "appointed" to each new person in Heaven, and all visit them to learn one lesson and, in turn, discover their meaning and purpose in life. The Blue Man begins by telling his own story. He attained his “freak” status by using silver nitrate as treatment for his nerves and incontinence as a child, resulting in argyria. At first, he was shunned by all — until he was discovered by a traveling circus. He found happiness in being the "best freak" in the shows, and reveals that Ruby Pier is his own, personalized Heaven.

Eddie is intrigued by the Blue Man's tale, but wonders how the two are connected; he vaguely remembers seeing him as a child, growing up along Ruby Pier. The Blue Man explains that Eddie and his friends inadvertently killed him while playing a baseball game in the street — the Blue Man swerved to avoid hitting the children, which resulted in a heart attack. Eddie apologizes profusely and prepares to "pay" for his "sin" — but the Blue Man laughs and explains that he has no need for regret. He then teaches Eddie his lesson — all people are connected in some way, be it a close friendship or a simple bond. With this lesson passed on, the Blue Man moves on, his skin becoming "perfect" as Eddie is transported to his next stage of Heaven.

Eddie is transported to a war-torn battlefield, full of explosions and bones. He discovers a set of dog tags that bear his name, and painfully recalls his own war days, in the Philippines during World War II. A voice suddenly calls out to him — it is the Captain, Eddie's commanding officer and Second Person. The two talk, and Eddie remembers their horrid experiences. He and his men were captured by Japanese soldiers and held prisoner for some time; eventually, the group escaped and, in an act of retaliation, destroys the village that their enemies had built.
While burning the various huts to the ground, Eddie spotted a shadow in one of the buildings. He began to scream for whoever was inside the hut to emerge, nearly losing his mind after months of starvation and isolation. He pushed away his fellow soldiers as he prepared to enter the flaming hut. A sudden blast of pain in his leg stopped him from entering — this bullet wound warped Eddie's leg completely. The resulting depression and post-traumatic stress that this wound caused halted his life for a good deal of time, and he reveals that he never truly recovered spiritually or emotionally from the war.

The Captain reveals the truth of that night — it was he that shot Eddie to save his life. An enraged Eddie attacks the Captain viciously, until the officer reveals that while Eddie laid in the back of a convoy, unconscious, he stepped forward to look for more soldiers. The Captain accidentally stepped on a land mine, which killed him instantly. Eddie apologizes for his selfishness, but the Captain turns this into his lesson: sacrifice. He explains that all people make sacrifices and choices, and it is only the most painful of these choices that allows others to live. Eddie forgives the Captain, who reveals that his Heaven truly resembles an untouched Paradise before he, too, moves on.

Eddie is then taken to an isolated diner amidst snow-covered purple mountains. He notices that many of the restaurant's patrons have been injured, and that the man sitting in a corner booth is his father. He begins to scream out "Dad!", but a voice stops him. It is the voice of an elderly woman, who introduces herself by explaining her life. She was a waitress in a diner similar to the one before the pair, and reveals that she married a wealthy man named Emile who, in an act of love, built an amusement park for her to capture her youth forever. She is Ruby, the namesake of Ruby Pier. She has come to regret the park's existence, though, as it caught fire one night, burning almost everything to the ground. Emile's fortune was gone, and Ruby nursed him back to health, all the while wishing that her park had never been built.

As Ruby tells her tale, Eddie remembers his agonizing relationship with his father. The man was often drunk, and often hit Eddie and his brother Joe after bad nights. Eddie's father also never told his son that he loved or cared for him; the only praise Eddie ever received was when he fixed something broken on Ruby Pier. After the war, Eddie's father confused his son's depression and stress with weakness, and tried to abuse him again; Eddie resisted, and the two stopped speaking.

Ruby forces Eddie to confront the night that his father died. Mickey Shea, a maintenance worker at the pier and an alcoholic, had come to Eddie's home, drunk. While there, he tried to molest Eddie's mother. When Eddie's father arrived, Mickey ran into the rain-soaked night, eventually stumbling into the waters surrounding the pier. Though furious, Eddie's father dives into the ocean and saves Mickey; the resulting pneumonia killed him. Ruby explains that she knows this because Emile shared a hospital room with his father.

Ruby finally imparts her lesson on Eddie: anger is a terrible feeling that results in nothing but pain for all parties. She explains that her diner in Heaven is a reminder of a simpler time, and a haven for all those injured at Ruby Pier. She also urges Eddie to forgive his father, explaining that he cannot move on until he does so. Eddie confronts the old man, and breaks down emotionally as he utters two words: "It's fixed." Ruby nods to Eddie as she disappears into the night.

After leaving Ruby, Eddie moves through various wedding receptions in his next stage of heaven. At one of the weddings, he encounters a woman handing out chocolates “for the bitter and the sweet.” It is his wife, Marguerite. Eddie loved her from the moment they met, before the war broke out, and never cared for anyone as much as his wife. The two planned to adopt a child, as Marguerite was unable to bear them herself.

Marguerite explained that it is never easy to deal with the loss of a loved one, and nearly impossible to cope with the premature death of a spouse. Although life is finite, love is eternal, she says. Marguerite explains to Eddie that even after a loved one dies, the feeling of love lives on. In the absence of a physical connection, in heaven he finds himself in a sea of white, empty and silent. 
He hears the sounds of screaming children — the same sounds that have haunted his dreams ever since the day he escaped captivity in the Philippines. Upon investigating the source of these screams, he finds children playing peacefully in a river. They are screams of joy, not of horror. Amongst the children, he finds a young Filipino girl, Tala. It turns out that she was the shadow he saw in the burning hut. He was responsible for her death.
After hysterically screaming and sobbing, Eddie collapses before the little girl, who shares with him his final lesson. Eddie explains to her that he was sad because he feels as if he didn’t do anything meaningful with his life. To this, she responds by sharing with him his purpose on earth. “Children. You keep them safe. You make good for me. Is where you were supposed to be. Eddie Main-ten-ance.” (p. 191).

Before Eddie exits his final stage in heaven, Tala tells him that he did, in fact, successfully push the young girl to safety from the plummeting ride. Eddie is confused at first, telling Tala that he felt his arms pulling her, not pushing. It turns out that these arms belonged to Tala, who was pulling him into heaven, keeping him safe.

Eddie is then swept away and is brought back to the pier. He sees thousands of people, some dead, some yet to be born. They are all people whose lives Eddie had unknowingly saved by maintaining the park rides. Finally, he comes to a beautiful, young, Marguerite sitting on a Ferris wheel. He looks at the clouds forming into one word: Home.

The Pier returns as it did before after Eddie’s death. Dominguez carries on with Eddie's old maintenance job. Albom reiterates the idea that all lives are connected by revealing that the owner of the car key responsible for the ride malfunction, and in turn, Nicky is the great-grandson of Ruby. The girl Eddie saved, “Amy or Annie,” many years from now will see in her first stage in heaven as “a whiskered old man, with a linen cap and a crooked nose, who waited in a place called the Stardust Band Shell to share his part of the secret of heaven: that each affects the other and the other affects the next, and this world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.” (p. 196)


Characters (source Wikipedia):
Eddie
Since his days as a child, Ruby Pier was part of Eddie’s life. He played there every day as a child with his older brother and friends, and began working there as a teenager under the supervision of his father, who held Eddie’s position before his untimely death. After he returned from his stint in World War II he resumed his life at the pier, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Eddie underwent years of abuse from his father. It started with neglect, took a turn towards violence, and concluded with absolute silence. His father would beat him as a child in his drunken state, culminating one night shortly after Eddie returned from war. As his father took a swing at Eddie, drunk, Eddie resisted by grabbing his father’s fist, for which his father never spoke to him again. Eddie’s relationship with his parents became distant after that, living alone with his wife, Marguerite. A few years later, his father died of pneumonia. His mother did not react well, or even sanely. She seemed unable to cope with her husband’s death and entered a stage of denial, which necessitated Eddie’s permanent return to the apartment in which he grew up. From here he returned to working at the pier doing exactly what he was doing before he went off to war.

He lived the next few decades alone with Marguerite. They lived simply, their “deep but quiet” love (p. 156) getting them through the drudgery of their everyday life. Unfortunately, Marguerite could not bear children, prompting them to routinely discuss the prospect of adoption. Eddie’s standard response was “we’re too old.” Marguerite’s rebuttal was “what’s too old to a child?”
They enjoyed their marriage together without a hitch until Eddie’s 39th birthday, when they fought over the phone as Eddie called Marguerite from the track to tell her of his winnings. To reconcile, Marguerite decided to drive to the track and apologize. But, along the way, she was involved in a gruesome car crash that landed her in the hospital for several months. After she was released, doctors found that she had a brain tumor. Marguerite died a few years later.

Eddie lived the rest of his life in remote solitude, keeping his job at Ruby Pier to keep him busy. He hobbled around the pier on his titanium-filled knee, a constant reminder of his time spent fighting in World War II. It is here that he meets his ultimate end, and the reader follows him throughout his exploration of the afterlife.




The Blue Man
As a young boy, Eddie spent many summer days playing with his friends and older brother at Ruby Pier. While playing catch with his friends one afternoon, the baseball Eddie received for his most recent birthday is inadvertently thrown into the street. As Eddie scampers to retrieve it, he steps in front of a car. The driver, in a panic, swerves and narrowly avoids collision with one car then veers into an alley and crashes into the back of another car resulting in his death. Eddie escapes without a scratch.

In Eddie’s first stop in heaven, it is revealed that this was “The Blue Man,” or Joseph Corvelzchik. Joseph lived his life as an attraction in a freak show at Ruby Pier. He emigrated from Poland in 1894, and, like most immigrants of the time, struggled to get by financially. At the age of 10 he took a job working in a sweatshop sewing buttons onto coats. His father always told him to avoid eye contact with the foreman and to remain unnoticed. But, one day, he spills a pile of buttons all over the floor right in front of the foreman, who tells him that he is useless and must go. As his father pleads with the foreman to let him stay, Joseph soils himself in front of the foreman, his father, and the entire industry.
His father never forgave him. As the years passed, his nervousness and incontinence persisted, further humiliating him and disappointing his father. In an act of desperation, Joseph resorted to a primitive medicinal measure — drinking silver nitrate. As this, later considered to be poison, did not cure him of his ailments, he assumed he was not taking a high enough dosage. As he continued to ingest more and more silver nitrate, his skin began to change color (which he remedied by taking more silver nitrate), until eventually he was completely blue. He was left jobless after being fired from the sweatshop for scaring other workers. Eventually he found refuge with a group of carnival men, and his life as a “commodity” had begun. After traveling from carnival to carnival, he found permanent employment at Ruby Pier, where he was referred to as the best freak in the entire show. He lived above a sausage shop, playing cards at night with fellow circus performers and even occasionally Eddie’s father, earning his living by sitting in a cage all day, half dressed, as people walked by and stared in shock, awe, and sometimes, disgust.


He explains that when Eddie retrieved his ball from the street, although he was quite safe and sound, the Blue man wasn't. Eddie had given him a heart attack when he was driving due to a sudden halt and the Blue man was not mad at Eddie because of this, which confused Eddie. The Blue Man then taught Eddie his first lesson, that we are all somehow or another connected. Everything that we do affects what will happen to another. The Blue Man then tells him "Strangers are family you have yet to come to know", meaning that although they never met, what Eddie did affected his life from then on.
The Blue Man taught Eddie the following lesson: "There are no random acts; we are all connected."




The Captain
When Eddie was shipped off to the Philippines during World War II, “The Captain” became Eddie’s commanding officer. He was a few years older than Eddie and his fellow men and had spent his life in the military, as did three generations of his family before him. His stern demeanor and quick temper were his most noticeable attributes. He made a promise to his men: no man gets left behind.

The Captain is the second person Eddie meets in heaven. Here, it is revealed that he was the one who shot Eddie in the leg, crippling him for life. However, unbeknownst to Eddie, the captain was actually saving his life, as Eddie was about to run into a burning hut, thinking he saw the shape of a small child burning in the ruins. Shortly after saving Eddie, the captain steps on a land mine and is killed. His lesson was about sacrifices.
The Captain has taught Eddie the following lesson: "Sacrifice is the noblest thing you can do."



Ruby
As a young girl, Ruby worked at the Seaside Diner, a small diner neighboring what would become Ruby Pier that Eddie used to frequent before it was torn down years ago. She was a beauty back in those days, and as such turned down many men until a young businessman, Emile, sat down in her diner. Ruby did not have much money growing up, and as such was blown away by Emile’s monetary whimsicality. After sufficient courtship, Emile proposed to Ruby and she gleefully accepted. To capture her eternal youth and the everlasting happiness their marriage would undergo, Emile built an amusement park in her name: Ruby Pier.

Ruby, the third person he meets, goes on to tell Eddie about the near-complete destruction of Ruby Pier. For Independence Day, Emile hired extra workers and utilized fireworks to draw extra customers. However, some of the “roustabouts” were drinking one night and began setting off fireworks, causing a fire that almost burned the entire pier to the ground. In a frantic attempt to save his life’s work, Emile tried to extinguish the fire with buckets of water, and in the process was critically injured and ended up in the same hospital room with Eddie’s father. Because of this, she is able to recount to him his father’s final living moments to him. Ruby helps Eddie understand the importance of forgiveness.




Marguerite
Eddie met his wife, Marguerite, right before his 17th birthday. Having met her only once, he ran home to his older brother and proclaimed that one day she would be his wife. Although premature, this prediction turned out to be accurate. They wedded on the Christmas Eve following his return from the war, on the second floor of Sammy’s, a small Chinese restaurant. It was a simple wedding. Eddie used what little money he had from the army on their food (roasted chicken with Chinese vegetables) and entertainment (a man with an accordion).They had a happy, loving marriage even though they could not have children. They were planning to adopt a child until the events of Eddie's 39th birthday. That day he won $800 at the track and called Marguerite to tell her the good news. However, she did not respond positively. Out of spite Eddie put all his winnings on the next race. Marguerite attempted to drive to the track to apologize for yelling at him on his birthday and to convince him to stop betting. On her way there, a couple of drunken kids dropped whiskey bottles off the freeway that landed on her car. This caused her to get in a car crash that lacerated her liver and broke her arm. The cost of the medical bills and her health issues made them ineligible to adopt.

After that tragic event, Eddie and Marguerite's marriage changed. They often sat in silence that was permeated by sullen tension. As time passed, however, they were eventually able to overcome their emotional disconnection and became loving companions once again. However, only a few years later, Marguerite died of a brain tumor. She was the fourth person Eddie met.
Marguerite teaches Eddie that, even though she had died, their love never went away; it just took a different form. Until Marguerite teaches him this, Eddie had felt as though she had been taken from him too early and that their love was torn to pieces.




Tala
During the war, Eddie was held captive in the Philippines by a troop of Japanese soldiers. After he and his fellow captives were able to escape, he set fire to their barracks. As he watched a straw hut burn to the ground, he thought he saw the shape of a small child inside and thought he heard screaming. Unsure if what he saw was real or a hallucination, he tried to run into the burning hut to save the child but was stopped, shot in the leg by his captain, thus saving Eddie's life.
Eddie later finds out in the book that he was, in fact, not hallucinating. He finds out that the child's name was Tala and she explained to him that the hands he felt on his own were not Annie's but hers, guiding him to heaven. He arrived in 'her' heaven, and he had heard screams and terrible noises (as form his terrible dreams) and Eddie walked to the top of a hill to find a lush area near a river where he saw children screaming and playing, having fun, that was the noise of his dreams. Then he saw Tala, showing him to come down the hill, he suddenly appeared at the bottom of the hill and she said hi, but then Eddie had noticed that there was not an adult in sight or even a teenager! Then once Tala and Eddie had talked, Tala had forgiven Eddie, but she told him to "wash" her of the burns. When he rubbed a wet rock up and down on her burns, they disappeared. Tala then told Eddie that his job and his life kept children safe from harm.