Movie Review : Ghost Town

Author: Izarrudin
Category: Movies
649 page views

Tuesday
Jan 6,2009

Likeable comedy with strong comic performances but it struggles to pull off its emotional scenes.

Ricky Gervais gets his first big screen lead role as Dr Bertram Pincus, a misanthropic dentist who dies for seven minutes during a routine colonoscopy and wakes up to discover that he can see and hear dead people. It turns out that there are rather a lot of them and when word gets around, Pincus is besieged by ghosts who all want him to take care of their unfinished business so they can rest in peace.

Being a miserable git, Pincus declines to grant any of their requests, but one of the ghosts, unfaithful husband Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), makes him a deal, namely that he’ll get all the ghosts to leave Pincus alone if Pincus helps break up the impending marriage of Frank’s widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni), who lives in Pincus’ building. However, when Pincus meets Gwen he starts to fall for her himself, which places him in an awkward situation.

The script was clearly written with Gervais in mind, as he isn’t called upon to stray much outside his grumpy misanthrope persona. As such, there are some very funny lines, particularly in the more successful early stages of the film. Tea Leoni is as adorable as always but there’s zero chemistry between her and Gervais, so the emphasis is firmly on com rather than rom. (And thank God, because, really, who wants to see Gervais kissing Tea Leoni?) There’s also strong comic support from Greg Kinnear and a hilarious, scene-stealing performance from Kristin Wiig as Pincus’ ditzy surgeon.

The main problem is that Gervais is so good at playing grumpy misanthropes that he fails to properly convince in the supposedly emotional final act. Like Groundhog Day, Ghost Town is meant to be about Pincus becoming a better person, but you’re not entirely sure he’s got the message.

Ghost Town is a watchable comedy with several good laughs, but Gervais can’t pull off a convincing nice guy act, so the emotional climax falls flat. I would recommeded this movie for the funny bits but not emotionally moved by the ending.

credits: ViewLondon | Yahoo! Movies Singapore

Official Movie Poster
Movie Review : Ghost Town

Singapore Date: 7th January 2009
Language: English
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy
Tagline: He sees dead people… and they annoy him.
Starring: Tea Leoni, Kristen Wiig, Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear
Directed by: David Koepp
Company: DreamWorks SKG
Singapore Distributor: United International Pictures
iZone Rating:

8/10

Official Website :
Ghost Town

Movie Trailer