Ghost Town
A Lovely Ghost Story and a Ghostly Love Story
I realize that it’s a bit too late to be posting a critique of a film that was reviewed by many critics months ago, but I figured in honor of its recent DVD release I’d try to stir up some positive buzz for what is now being called one of the biggest flops of the year with the likes of Delgo and The Love Guru. The difference you ask? Well read on…
Ghost Town is a story which was left behind by the American public yet highly acclaimed to most critics (including a 84% out of 152 votes on RottenTomatoes.com). With a production budget of 20 million and a worldwide earning of 23 million it’s sad that this film only saw the light of day for about a month in theaters. So why did such a romantic gem flop while the likes of My Best Friends Girl (doubled it’s production budget) and Eagle Eye (profit of 95 million) flourished? Because no matter how much the average movie goer says they don’t want slapstick comedy and special effects the majority of them do and therefore the studios produce the same boring stories with non-content inspired visual effects.
If you want a nice change from the constant popcorn eye candy and you’re looking for an intelligent observational and inspirational comedy I’d suggest you give Ricky Gervais, Téa Leoni, and Greg Kinnear a chance. Ghost Town follows dentist Bertram Pinkus (Gervais) through the streets of NYC following a botched colonoscopy which left him dead for 7 minutes and with the ability to see ghosts. The story has its witty use of dry and dark humor mixed in well with a unique love story. Kinnear and Gervais make a great comedic duo the likes of Abbot and Costello where each person’s strengths play off the others weaknesses. Kinnear’s character is friendly and confident while Gervais’ is isolated and cynical. Throughout the story both characters grow to become more like each other while they team up to chase Frank’s widow (Téa Leoni) which is a curveball in the formulamatic love triangle scenario already. Oh, and we can’t forget the noteworthy performance from Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show fame who’s rare appearances as Pinkus’ “friend” led to a turning point in the film.
The dialogue is enthralling and I believe the reason this film turns out so well. However, while there are top name actors in this film, I don’t think the roles they played were very demanding to begin with. Also, the writing is clever, but not on par with turn of the century career comedians such as Judd Apatow (to be expected from a first time comedic film maker such as Koepp who penned scripts for Spiderman, Stir of Echoes, Jurassic Park, and Mission Impossible). With his primary talents in action, but his ambition and courage to try something new I think Koepp created a wonderfully fresh tale worth more credit than any of the other garbage that came out of September.
So if you find yourself at Blockbuster this weekend looking for a refreshing romantic comedy divert your eyes from Dane Cook and look towards Ricky Gervais. While he may not be more visually appealing to look at his perspective on life is much easier to relate to.
“Only a life lived for others is worth living.”
A. Einstein
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