It's 1959 San Francisco. Penny Washington (Alfre Woodard) leaves her three children to work the night shift. Harrison Winslow (Charles Grodin) abandons his singing audition. Julia (Kyra Sedgwick) turns down her boyfriend's proposal. Petty thief Milo Peck (Tom Sizemore) tries to get back some stamps that he stole from a boy. They all get on the same bus that crashes into the Reillys on their way to the hospital. She is forced to give birth on the side of the road. The four bus passengers are stranded as ghosts in the world connected to baby Thomas Reilly. The kid gets in trouble and the ghosts agree to stay invisible for the good of Thomas. Thomas (Robert Downey Jr.) grows up to be a ruthless corporate banker. His girlfriend Anne (Elisabeth Shue) asks him to meet her parents. The bus driver comes back to pick them up. The ghosts are suppose to resolve their one issue but no angel came to explain it. So he gives them some additional time to finish.

RDJ gets to do some big time acting pretending to be the four other characters. There is just too many stories to go through. It's not as funny as it wants to be. The ghosts leaving one at a time makes it feel anti-climatic. The story feels like it's slowly fading away. It would be better if they have a ticking clock and the ghosts stick together for the whole movie. It's a good movie for RDJ fans.

In 1959, in San Francisco, the telephone operator Penny Washington (Alfre Woodard) leaves her three children to work in her night shift. The shy singer Harrison Winslow (Charles Grodin) is afraid of the stage and quits his audition. The waitress Julia (Kyra Sedgwick) is proposed by her boyfriend and she does not accept; then she regrets and leaves her job to seek him out. The smalltime thief Milo Peck (Tom Sizemore) tries to retrieve a valuable collection of stamps that he had stolen from a boy. They embark in a bus and the driver Hal (David Paymer) distracts while driving and has a serious accident, and driver and passengers die. Meanwhile, Frank Reilly (Bill Calvert) is driving his pregnant wife Eva Reilly (Lisa Lucas) to the hospital. Frank successfully escapes from the bus but Eva is nervous and delivers her baby in the car. The souls of the four passengers become the guardian angels and the invisible friends of the boy Thomas Reilly. Seven years later, Penny, Julia, Harrison and Milo conclude that they are harming the boy and they decide to become invisible also to him.

Thirty and something years later, Hal returns with his bus to take them four and the quartet learns that they had all those years to resolve the issues of their lives. They ask Hal to stall and give some more time for them to resolve their unfinished lives and they decide to come back to Thomas (Robert Downey Jr.),who is now a tough businessman and indecisive in his relationship with girlfriend Anne (Elisabeth Shue),and ask him to help them to resolve their issues and become free souls. In the end, Thomas also becomes a better man.

"Heart and Souls" is one of the most adorable films of the 90's. The writer uses the central idea of the successful "Ghost" (1990) to make a witty and delightful comedy, with state-of-art special effects in 1993.

Kyra Sedgwick, Tom Sizemore, Alfre Woodard, Charles Grodin and Robert Downey Jr. show an amazing chemistry and they really seem to have fun while shooting this film. Kyra Sedgwick shows a beautiful smile and Robert Downey Jr. is hilarious. The cameo of B.B. King is a plus that gives the status of cult to this film. The message in the end is very nice and I do not recall how many times I have seen "Heart and Souls" on VHS in the 90's. Yesterday I saw it on DVD for the first time and I only regret that there are no extras, only the film. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Morrendo e Aprendendo" ("Dying and Learning")

If you want to do a Robert Downey Jr. Double bill of spiritual films that will make your heart expand, watch this along with the 1989 comedy "Chances Are". I did it as a triple along with 'Chaplin" (you can't get any bigger hearted than that),and there's a reason why he had probably the most whimsical career of the '80s and '90s with films like these. With Chaplin like pathos, these two comedies have stood the test of time and in cynical times are actually better now in the sense of the emotional security they send out.

"Heart and Souls" is one of those films that may make you tear up so much you can barely see the screen. It tells the story of a young boy, Thomas, who is guided by four spirits, dying prematurely in a bus accident and stuck in his world, that is until they realize that they are stunting his growth. Without them in his life though, Thomas grows up to be Downey Jr., an overly hard-working businessman, cynical and seemingly uncaring. But they realize that they must reappear to him as an adult so he can help them finish what they were unable to in life.

There's Tom Sizemore as a cynical thief, trying to write a wrong of stealing from a young boy; Charles Grodin as a singer without courage who was never able to complete an audition; Kyra Sedgwick as a waitress who never got to tell her boyfriend that she loved him; and most touchingly Alfre Woodard as the mother of three desperate to see her children and confirm that they are happy.

One by one, Downey aides them, getting into trouble each time, and their souls are swept away individually by the bus driver, David Paymer, and Downey tries to find his own courage in dealing with his feelings about girlfriend Elizabeth Shue whom he keeps trying to push away from any serious commitment.

Only lightly comic, this is still whimsical enough to keep you smiling, laughing and wiping away those tears. Woodard simply steals this film just by being one of the most warm-hearted characters you'd ever hope to meet. The resolution to her story is ironic and extremely touching. The San Francisco locations are beautifully represented, taking us to a variety of places in the city and showing the magic of that place, and if you don't feel like breaking into "Walk Like a Man" while on Market Street, then this film won't help you. But for those of us looking for a little magic in this world, we can be grateful to the writers who took a complicated story and made it touch us heart and soul, and 30 years later, it is still indeed magical.