GHOST TOWN
2008
Written by David Koepp and John Kamps
Directed by David Koepp
Ghost Town is a refreshingly old-fashioned comedy which delights in small character observations and quirks instead of bludgeoning us over the head and screaming at us to laugh, as so often happens nowadays (see: Step Brothers). It's also surprising that it comes from prolific Hollywood screenwriter David Koepp who, despite having written everything from Jurassic Park to Spider-Man, has never before made a movie this light or sweet.
It's also much different from Koepp's last ghost movie, the intense and underrated Stir of Echoes. While that movie, too, was about spirits contacting the living for help, Ghost Town definitely has more fun with the concept. First of all, it stars comedic genius Ricky Gervais, creator of the original British version of The Office, who just might be the funniest person alive. Gervais plays Dr. Bertram Pincus, a dentist who enjoys his profession because once he stuffs things in people's mouths, he doesn't have to hear them talk anymore. Pincus enjoys as little contact with his fellow human beings as possible, and goes home every night alone, stewing in his own misery.
When he goes in for a routine colonoscopy, he thinks that all goes well, and intends to return home the next day. Unbeknownst to him, he died for seven minutes before being resuscitated, a fact his surgeon (the invaluable Kristen Wiig) neglects to tell him. However, on his walk home, strange people begin coming up to Pincus and asking him for help. When he walks through one, he realizes that something's amiss. They're ghosts begging for him to finish off their unfinished business. But instead of being the sensitive Haley Joel Osment type, he tells them to sod off.
One that's not so easy to get rid of is Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), an alcoholic-lite womanizer who wants Pincus to make sure that his archaeologist wife Gwen (Téa Leoni) doesn't marry Richard (Billy Campbell), who is Frank's exact opposite: Basically, a nice, upstanding person. Pincus reluctantly schemes with Frank to set himself up as the man who will divert Gwen's attentions. The only problem is that Gwen has lived in the same building with Pincus for years, and of course he's been nothing but rude to her. But through his uneasy attempts at niceness, Pincus find himself falling for Gwen, she finds herself falling for him, etc.
It is perfectly true to say that Ghost Town is nothing you haven't seen before. There are times when it's predictable or sappy or corny. But the theory I've always held about romantic comedies is that though you already know the outcome, the ride getting there is what matters, and the same holds true for a supernatural outing like Ghost Town. I mean, before Pretty Woman even starts, we already know that Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are going to wind up together, but there's a reason it made Roberts an overnight star and why it has endured for almost two decades. It may not be a great movie, but damn if we don't enjoy its charm and good humor.
Ghost Town manages to go it one better, and outdo most romcoms of the decade, by cultivating a cast of veritable comic masterminds. No one does awkward better than Ricky Gervais (the original Office had even more hysterically uncomfortable silences than the brilliant American version, and Extras was wonderfully offensive), and since the entire movie is about a man who cannot reasonably communicate in any way, Koepp should consider his casting a coup. Gervais' repartee with Greg Kinnear results in some of the film's funniest moments ("Pink-ass!"), but it's in his moments with Téa Leoni that the movie--and Pincus--finds its heart. I've never really taken a shine to Leoni before this, but here she makes her character beautifully human and genuinely funny, to boot. I'd never known she could be so funny, and now that I do, I hope she gets more of a chance to exercise her comedy chops in the future. Also crucial to the film's success are dependable Saturday Night Live cast member Kristen Wiig, who steals every scene she's in, which is a feat considering she's never not playing against Gervais; and Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi as Pincus' dental colleague, who imbues potentially treacly character moments with a sense of reality and warmth.
The movie isn't perfect. It's a very sentimental affair (I will admit that I had a tear in my eye at one point) and it seems there was a last-minute rush in the editing room, some of the pieces not fitting together entirely; an hilarious running gag about a naked ghost is sadly never paid off. But Koepp and his cast execute it with such honesty and wit that it hardly matters. I was kind of sad when the movie ended; the ghosts may have resolved their unfinished business, but I still have to deal with whatever Dane Cook or Sarah Jessica Parker movie comes out next week.
- Arlo J. Wiley
September 26, 2008
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