Heart and Souls

Heart and Souls follows four strangers who die in a bus crash in San Francisco in 1959. At the exact moment of the accident, a baby is born, and the four become invisible guardians to the child, Thomas. He grows up treating them as imaginary playmates, until concern over his behaviour pushes the ghosts to withdraw from his life. Decades later they return to the adult Thomas, now a self-absorbed businessman played by Robert Downey Jr., because they need his help to settle the unfinished business that keeps them from moving on. The other three are played by Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodard and Kyra Sedgwick, with Tom Sizemore as the fourth and David Paymer as the bus driver.

Ron Underwood directed the film, which came after Tremors and City Slickers in his filmography. Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson wrote the screenplay with Erik Hansen, and Sean Daniel and Nancy Roberts produced it for Universal Pictures. The film mixes comedy, fantasy and romance across its 104-minute running time.

Released in August 1993, it took in about 17 million dollars worldwide, a modest return. Audiences have been kinder to it than critics: on IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 across roughly 20,000 votes, with a similar 7 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller pool, while the critics' rating stands at 5.3 out of 10 from 24 reviews.