Movie Review - 'Ghost Town'

Ghost Town

Starring Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, and Tea Leoni
Directed by David Koepp
Rated PG-13

Your opinion of Ghost Town will depend almost completely on your opinion of Ricky Gervais. If you like his abrasive, uncomfortable comedic style - as witnessed in the original version of The Office on the BBC or in Extras - then you'll probably enjoy this movie very much. It has laughs that don't involve Gervais, though not many, but there's enough going on here that you can enjoy it even more if you like the leading man. However, Gervais is polarizing. Some people just can't stand his style. Those people probably wouldn't look Ghost Town, although why they'd see it in the first place if they don't like Gervais is a mystery. The story is silly, but it works: Bertram Pincus, DDS (Gervais) is a terrible human being. He hates people and refuses to lift one finger for someone in need. He chose his profession because it forces his patients to be quiet. As a many gently rolling into middle age, Pincus needs a colonoscopy. Not fun, but what are you gonna do? To alleviate some of the discomfort, Pincus wants anesthesia, which is not common for that procedure. While he was under, though, Pincus died "a little bit," according to his doctor. For seven minutes, he was a corpse. When he came back to life, though, Pincus was fine except for the fact that he can see ghosts around him everywhere. And they all want his help. Perfect. One of the ghosts is Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), who wants to stop his widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni), from marrying another man. Their plan, once Pincus agrees to help the ghost in a tuxedo, involves having Pincus sweep Gwen off her feet so she falls out of love with the fiance. It's a brave plan, though not an easy one to execute.The movie is the first as a director in four years for noted screenwriter David Koepp (Spider-Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). He previously directed Secret Window, Stir of Echoes, and The Trigger Effect. Clearly, this is not the sort of thing he does often or does best. However, there are some genuinely funny moments in Ghost Town, and he has put together a very effective trio to handle the material. Gervais shows more ability as an actor than you might think. That might sound weird on the surface because he's an Emmy-winning actor and was the star of two groundbreaking comedy series. The difference is, he wrote his own material. While I have to believe he was given some leeway to improvise dialogue here, he falls right in the pocket playing the character. Even as a fan of Gervais, I was not sure he could carry a film, but he does a very good job. There's not very much about this movie that you have to figure out; you kind of see where it's going just from what I've told you, I suspect. But being clever or tricky or completely original isn't everything. Great pop songs, for example, sound familiar the first time you hear them. Filmmakers adhere to formulas for a reason: They work. It's what they choose to do within that structure that determines whether or not a movie is funny, dramatic, tragic, suspenseful, whatever. David Koepp knows suspense, and with Ghost Town, he proves he can make an effective comedy even when you may doubt the ingredients in his formula.