Return To Me came out in 2000 and it stars David Duchovny and Minnie Driver as the two main characters but also has a number of very good actors in supporting roles. These include Carroll O'Connor, Bonnie Hunt, James Belushi, David Alan Grier, and Joely Richardson... to name a few. Actually, Bonnie Hunt was a busy lady while working on this movie as she wrote the screenplay, acted in it, and was the director as well.
At the beginning of the film, Elizabeth Rueland (Richardson) is a zoologist who works with primates at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. She is speaking at a fundraiser to build a huge new enclosure for the gorillas which her husband Bob (Duchovny)- an architect- is designing. It's a big success and Bob promises Elizabeth that he'll get the enclosure built, getting her to promise in return that she'll take some time off and go on a trip to Italy with him. But on the way home, they're involved in a car accident and Elizabeth is killed. Bob is taken home from the hospital by Charlie, a friend who works at the zoo as a veterinarian. Once there, he collapses on the floor, utterly devastated by the death of his wife.
Meanwhile, also in Chicago, Grace Briggs is slowly dying of heart failure in the hospital; having inherited heart disease from her mother (now deceased) she's been on the transplant list for a long time and she doesn't have a lot of time left. But suddenly a heart becomes available and she is rushed in for surgery as her loved ones gather at the hospital to wait and pray. The operation is a success and unexpectedly- miraculously- Grace has a life to look forward to.
In the meantime, Grace is trying to find her footing in the new life which has opened up for her. She's working at her grandfather's restaurant and living in an apartment above it, spending time with her best friend Megan (Hunt) and struggling to write a thank you letter to the family of her organ donor, agonizing that just a letter seems "not enough" somehow. She's also trying to dodge her grandfather's cronies'- and Megan's husband's- well meaning but clumsy attempts to set her up with various guys. They are not good choices. Grace would actually like to be in a relationship with a good man, but having been medically incapacitated since she was 14, feels uncertain and inexperienced. She's also self-conscious about her heart transplant; often people who find out about it treat her differently, as though she's fragile and might break at any moment. She wears high collars to hide her scar so that people won't ask about it. In addition, she hesitates to tell anyone when she's feeling down or lonely because she doesn't want to come across as ungrateful for her new healthy existence.
This isn't to suggest that Grace is actually unhappy- she is enjoying a life now where getting on a bicycle isn't a death sentence, where she can work in her garden again and paint- she's quite a skilled artist- without gasping for air. And then one Friday night while she's waitressing, her grandfather (played by Carroll O'Connor) surprises her with a plane ticket to Italy so she can go there to paint. She's happily contemplating this when she heads over to a table to take the orders of the people sitting there. It's Charlie and Bob, Charlie's date, and another woman that they've invited to introduce to Bob.