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Hello Again
Year - 1987
Studio - Touchstone
Stars - Shelley Long, Corbin Bernsen, Gabriel Byrne, Judith Ivey, Sela Ward, Austin Pendleton
Director - Frank Perry
Writing Credits - Susan Isaacs
Music - William Goldstein
Synopsis
Lucy Chadman (Shelley Long) desires a simple life, but her upwardly mobile plastic surgeon husband, Jason (Corbin Bernsen), has other plans. At a posh dinner party, her clumsy falls and spills embarrass him in front of his peers. Visiting her sister Zelda (Judith Ivey) proprietor of an occult bookstore, Lucy chokes on a chicken ball. She is rushed to the emergency room, but dies on the table, her last vision that of the face of the attending doctor, Kevin Scanlon (Gabriel Byrne).
A year later, Zelda finds an ancient book of magic spells, and visits Lucy's grave where she chants the proscribed incantations. Lucy appears, but has no memory of her death. She learns that her husband has remarried, to her best friend in life, Kim Lacey (Sela Ward). She returns to the hospital emergency room and greets the astonished Dr. Scanlon. He is determined to fully investigate this apparent miracle, and subjects Lucy to medical tests. Zelda confides to the doctor that the ancient text warned that the return to life will be temporary if she doesn't find true love within a year.
Believing that Lucy will steal her new husband, Kim calls a press conference to make the claim that Lucy's return to life was a hoax, using a drug to cause her to appear dead to doctors. When Lucy doesn't protest the claim, the hospital fires Dr. Scanlon for incompetence. Later, at a party, dedicating Jason's new plastic surgery wing at the hospital, Zelda performs an occult ritual before the guests, and causes Lucy to channel the spirit of Kim's late husband who, in life, was wealthy but didn't leave her an inheritance. Kim is convinced that his spirit is genuine, and announces that she had lied about Lucy, that her death was not faked. Dr. Scanlon is reinstated to his position, and he and Lucy proclaim their love for each other.