Ghost Town, a romantic comedy by director David Koepp, is a fanciful and supernatural tale that is likely to become this fall’s surprising classic date movie. The film is light-hearted and reminiscent of classics such as Heaven Can Wait and Ghost, but stands on its own with a modern flair and quirkiness. Acting talents Tea Leoni and Ricky Gervais turn Ghost Town from an also-ran romantic comedy into a must-see film.
Gervias plays Dr. Bertram Pincus D.D.S., an average dentist in Manhattan who seeks little more than quiet solitude and privacy. Pincus lives an antiseptic, deliberately disconnected life, breathing through days of routine to ensure that he has no unpleasant interactions with his patients, his neighbors or his co-workers. Gervais, established by his role in the worldwide hit television series The Office, delivers a character in Dr. Pincus so cynical and self-absorbed and yet so obviously lonely that audiences immediately feel a disquieted connection to the sad dentist.
Leoni plays Gwen Herlihy, an Egyptologist with an obsession for mummies and the ancient, but without much success connecting with present-day love. For the first time, Leoni is provided a role that allows her natural comedic expression full range and she fully delivers. Paired with Gervais and supported by free-flowing dialog, Leoni provides the catalyst that turns Gervais’ character from sadly cynical to disarmingly lovable and funny.
Greg Kinnear provides the conflict role in Ghost Town as the deliberately unlikable Frank Herlihy, unfaithful husband of Gwen. Frank is an outgoing, obnoxious man accustomed to getting what he wants from life. When Frank is accidentally killed, his spirit remains to haunt Manhattan until he resolves some unfinished business. Unfortunately for Frank, he can’t finish his business because nobody can see or hear him, until… Pincus.
When Dr. Pincus undergoes a routine colonoscopy, he demands general anesthesia to ensure that he is not awake for the procedure. Unfortunately his surgery does not go as planned and after leaving the hospital, Pincus finds that he can see and hear ghosts everywhere he turns – the side effect of being dead for seven minutes during his operation.
Being the kind of person who gets what he wants, Frank finds Pincus and arranges a mutually beneficial deal. Frank needs someone to break up his wife’s new relationship and Pincus wants to be left alone. Pincus agrees to help Frank on the condition that he is left alone by all the other ghosts.
Predictably, as Pincus becomes involved in Gwen’s life, he falls in love with her. He finds that as his motivations toward Gwen change, he can no longer fulfill the request of her deceased husband and cancels the arrangement.
Ricky Gervais and Tea Leoni shine in Ghost Town. As a team, Gervais and Leoni play together so naturally to be similar to classic comic duos such as Tim Conway and Harvey Korman or Abbott and Costello. Gervais and Leoni don’t simply deliver lines from a well-written comedy script, they become Dr. Pincus and Gwen – learning how to become friends in the strangest of circumstances and laughing through their individual personality quirks. Ghost Town is the first movie in a very long time that delivers laugh-out-loud comedy, not forced by over the top sight gags, obvious one-liners or crude humor.
If there is anything to critique about Ghost Town, it is that the plot was neither complex nor unexpected. It is easy to see from the beginning of the story how it is going to play. But because the characters are so well acted and because the script is so much fun, those things don’t matter. Watching the evolution of the story through the eyes of the characters is what makes Ghost Town so much fun.
Ghost Town is an unexpected surprise and one of my favorite movies this year.
– Blake Schwendiman
