Thursday, September 25, 2008
You know those sugary sweet movies you used to watch with your mom when you were sick? Movies that were high on sugar, low on substance? The newest addition to this saccharine genre is Ricky Gervais’ Ghost Town.
The movie tells of a misanthropic dentist, Bertram Pincus, played by funny-man Gervais. Pincus develops a unique ability to see dead people after he suffers a botched colonoscopy. Believe it or not, Pinkus hates ghosts just as much as everyone else.
While there is a talented cast of incorporeal beings (some of whom are familiar faces), the main spirit is played by Greg Kinnear. Kinnear plays the ghost of Frank Herlihy whose life was full of adultery and lies. His wife, Gwen, played by Téa Leoni, happens to live one floor above Pinkus, and Kenier asks a favor of the doctor: split up Leoni and her new fiancée. To top it off, Pinkus himself falls in love with the dead guy’s wife.
While Ghost Town is marketed as a comedy and is littered with talented comedic actors, the writing doesn’t exactly lend itself to much laughter. Most of the humdingers were already peppered throughout the trailer. Instead, Ghost Town has a sweet side that results in some inexplicably happy moments in which characters act in appalling ways toward each other. Though there’s a happy ending most will enjoy, the roundabout route in which the writers get there defies explanation.
Ghost Town proves yet again that merely a cast of talented actors cannot totally make up for poor writing. The film’s not a complete waste of time, but it might be a better idea to wait for it to show up on HBO than to spend money on it seeing it in the theater.
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