you have a nice smile, did anyone ever tell you that?
The story starts with the introduction of three different lives:
Elvis Monroe, a funeral director and unlicensed embalmer.
Anabelle Leigh, a beauty queen with an overbearing mother and an alcoholic stepfather.
And Charlie Monroe, an ailing father who, despite who has become, still manages to teach his son so many new things.
Elvis: How did you do? (after playing golf)
Charlie: 78. I didn't get under 72.
Elvis: You'll get it.
Charlie: Got to get under 72.
Elvis: You'll get it.
Geneva: (shudder) Creepy. Did ya'll get a load of those two?
Unlike Elvis, who of which she isn't acquainted with yet, Anabelle isn't as close to her family. With the stress of making her parents proud and the criticism from her mother, Anabelle suffers from bulimia.
Elvis: See, um, I'm not sure if he should use a sword or one of those... long like poles with a hatchet on the end, you know what I mean? Which one you think?
Charlie: I like it.
Elvis: Got to give him knives on the inside of his cloak.
Charlie: I like it.
Elvis: I do too.
Charlie: When you gonna get a gal?
Elvis: (shakes head, writing)
Charlie: When you gonna get a gal?
Elvis: I heard you the first time. Um, I don't know, I haven't met anyone.
Charlie: Well, you ain't gonna find her in the grocery store.
After being crowned Miss Texas Rose, Anabelle collapses on the floor, suffering from a cardiac arrest.
Soon thereafter, her parents send her to Charlie Monroe-supposedly the best and only mortician in town. Unknowingly, it is his son, Elvis, who performs the embalming. Right before doing the embalming, Elvis, who never knew Anabelle, decides right then there, to kiss her. After he accidentally snaps a photo of them, he is startled by the wind and goes to close the window. Through the reflection he sees Anabelle suddenly brought back to life.
Anabelle returns home, but can't stop remembering the night before waking up from death and needs some answers.
Elvis: You were just on TV.
Anabelle: Oh yeah, so, uh, so, where's Mr. Monroe?
Elvis: Uh, he's occupied at the moment, Charlie, uh... Charlie's my dad. Can I help you?
Anabelle: Well actually, I need to talk to him. It's uh... do you know who I am?
Elvis: You were just on TV.
[...]
Anabelle: I'll see you then.
Elvis: I'm Elvis, by the way. My name's Elvis.
Anabelle: Oh. Anabelle.
Elvis: I know.
Anabelle: That's right. Bye.
Elvis: Bye.
Scarlet: Near deathers often have a deep seeded need to alter their lives.
Anabelle: I can't go anywhere in this stupid town without someone taking my picture!
Geneva: But you love to have your picture taken...
Anabelle: My lord... you know, I can't take this! I just... I can't do it anymore, I'm done!
Geneva: Good idea, good idea. Why don't you get some rest like Scarlet said tomorrow's another day. Oh listen we have Good Morning Houston-
Anabelle: I said no more interviews!
Geneva: We told them we'd do it!
Anabelle: You told them!
Plagued with nightmares of death becoming of her and dreams of the moments before waking up, Anabelle goes back to Charlie's house again in hope of some answers.
Anabelle: (gasps) Good lord, would you put that thing down?
Elvis: You don't just walk into people's houses like that!
Anabelle: Just calm down, okay. It's not like I was stealing anything
Elvis: What are you doing here?
Anabelle: I just want to see if I can remember.
Elvis: Remember what? What?
Anabelle: Well, I mean, this is where it happened, didn't it?
Elvis: I guess, but call or something, let us know you're coming over
Anabelle: Sorry.
Elvis: It's okay. Do you remember anything?
Anabelle: Well it's kind of hard when you're about to be [...] with a golf club!
[...]
Anabelle: Wait, you're Mr. Monroe?
Dad: Hello.
Elvis: You remember Anabelle?
Dad: Have we met? My name is Charlie.
Elvis: Dad, this is the girl. That's the one [...] who came back to life on the table.
Dad: She's a foxy mama.
Anabelle then asks to stay over because she needs to disappear for a few days. Elvis declines, but soon decides to let her stay. She asks Mr. Monroe about what happened when she woke up and he only answers, "You just... woke up" while playing golf. Her questions are left unanswered.
Anabelle: You're dad's precious. Is her okay?
Elvis: Yeah, he's fine. A couple of years back some kids from Edison threw a beer bottle at his head while he's walking on the side of the road. Friends of yours, I'm sure
Anabelle: Wait, friends of mine? What the hell's that?
Elvis: Bobby Jackson, Johnny Parker, that crew pretty much buddy-buddy?
Anabelle: No, why would you think that?
Elvis: You're a cheerleader, aren't you?
Anabelle: So? Does that mean all my friends are jerks?
Elvis: Does it?
Anabelle: You know what? You're dad is such a sweetheart and you're just such a... You know someone should hit your head with a beer bottle, get you to lighten up a little, good lord!
Knowing she won't get an answer no matter how persistent, she decides to help around the house, bringing her charm with her to brighten up them all.
Elvis: What the hell are you doing? Where did you get that paint from?
Anabelle: Garage. I'm gonna need some more.
Elvis: You can stop now.
Anabelle: Got three more walls to go!
[...]
Anabelle: Nice shirt
Elvis: What's wrong with it?
Anabelle: Nothing, I said it's nice. Here, let me see it. (splatters paint on it and laughs)
Anabelle: You ever grow anything in that field?
Elvis: Nothing grows worth a damn around here.
Anabelle: Well what do you use that tractor and planter for?
Elvis: Golf course.
Anabelle: You know, I can't believe this. We're doing this as backwards. We need to be planting the seeds now so they can grow while we paint. You lend me some money?
Elvis: Wait, what seeds? You can't plant anything now, what's going to grow in the heat?
Anabelle: A miracle.
Anabelle: You know, for all the terrible stuff that's happened to me, it made me realize for every terrible tragedy in this world, there's an equally miraculous thing that grows from it.
Charlie: Oh I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. they said they knew she was here so I might as well admit it so nobody gets hurt and goes to jail.
Elvis: Dad, dad, it's alright. You did good.
Charlie: I did?
Anabelle: Oh, of course you did.
Charlie: I just told them Anabelle had been here, but then she took of in our old Cadillac.
Elvis: What Cadillac?
Charlie: The one we got parked up alongside the house.
Elvis: Dad, we don't have a Cadillac.
Charlie: They don't know that.
Leaving there hometown behind them, and to escape the police looking for Anabelle, Elvis and Anabelle venture and soon discover love, freedom, and happiness.
Elvis: What are you doing? Open the door, open the door!
Anabelle: Say you're sorry.
Elvis: Sorry for what?
Anabelle: Being a jerk last night. (I didn't cap that scene)
Elvis: I'm sorry.
Anabelle: Like you mean it.
Elvis: Open the door Anabelle!
Anabelle: Guess I'm leaving.
Elvis: Okay, I'm sorry for acting like a jerk last night!
Anabelle: Actually, jerk's too nice of a word.
Elvis: Ass?
Anabelle: Keep going.
Elvis: Anabelle, open the damn door already. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was an ass!
Anabelle: You were. Okay, I'm driving. Come on, get in.
Anabelle: You have a nice smile, did anyone ever tell you that?
But all good things must come to and end. After Geneva uncovers Elvis' scrapbook filled with photos of the people he embalmed, she also discovers the photo of Elvis kissing Anabelle in the trash.
(headline: Young Mortician Sleeps With Cadavers)
Anabelle: How could you do this to me? How could you do this...?
Elvis: You were lying on the table and...
(police sirens)
Anabelle: Why?
Elvis: No matter how I explain, it's going to come out wrong.
Anabelle: I want to know what happened, everything. [...]
Elvis: What's the point? I thought you were so much more than this
Anabelle: Join the club. You know what, I am so sick of your victim crap! Yeah I know that people have made mistakes that have hurt you or scarred you or whatever. But to hear you turn around and you do the same thing to me... to somebody who you acted like you cared about. But am I going to make that the focus for the rest of my life? No, you know why? Because I chose to forgive and move on.
Elvis: I kissed you.
Anabelle: What?
Elvis: I was doing the embalming-my father can't do it anymore. you were lying on the table in the room. I looked at you. You looked so... beautiful, and I kissed you. I didn't do anything more than you heard. I have a camera in the room. I use it to take pictures of the people once I finish embalming them. I didn't mean to take a picture of us, that was an accident. I would've told you what happened before, but, I just figured [...]
Anabelle: When I came back, on the table, were you there?
Elvis: I was going to start embalming but you moved, you sat up.
Anabelle: After you kissed me?
Elvis: Yeah. Anabelle, hey...
Anabelle: You want to know what the saddest thing is Elvis? After that you still didn't believe miracles. Maybe you're right.
(Charlie finally got under 72-with a 70)
The sunflowers Anabelle had planted and grew-for the first time, Elvis witnessed a miracle.
Anabelle: What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life?
Elvis: Your eyes.
All caps taken and coloured by me. Please don't use anything for graphics or the like.
Groomed by her overly ambitious mother who had also previously been a Miss Texas Rose (Mary Steenburgen), Anabelle Leigh (Blake Lively) is on the road to winning the Miss Texas Rose tiara when she dies as a result of her eating disorder during a pageant. Her death lands her on the embalming table of Elvis (Max Minghella), an embittered young man whose sense of family duty and love for his ailing father (Joe Mantegna) keep him from following his dreams. When Anabelle is miraculously resurrected on Elvis's embalming table the two unexpectedly connect and sparks fly. With the help of each other and Elvis's father, they discover love, freedom, and happiness as the real world and their own demons threaten to force them apart.