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Plot:
Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais), is a man whose people skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but is miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he n...( read more
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Ghost Town Recent Reviews
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:January 6, 2009This movie was surprisingly funny and quite charming. It isn't a wholly original story, but one done well and with a perfect mixture of heart and humor. Welcome Ricky Gervais as the interminable misanthropic Bertram Pincus.
We start the film with Bertram basically showing his disdain for, well, everyone alive until a mishap alters his perceptions.
The movie has a great pace and the dialogue is just superb as one would expect from Gervais. His acerbic wit and biting sarcasm hits its mark nearly every time and his timing is impeccable. Tea Leoni is perfect, as usual, and Greg Kinnear plays the annoying narcissist superbly.
Where this movie has some problems is in character consistency.
Gervais initially paints a person incapable of human interaction with no sense of humor or insight into self. This character evolves so quickly and steps out so dramatically that it occasionally strays into the, "this doesn't work" arena. Also, this character vacillates so often and abruptly from one pole to the other that he is often hard to identify with which leaves us a bit barren in terms of defining our "protagonist."
What saves this misgiving is the genius behind the mask, Gervais himself.
The delivery, the story, the performances are all wonderful, but the dialogue is so sharp that it is not to be missed.
Watch this any night and with any person and I promise you will all enjoy. -
MCT:January 5, 2009
Ricky Gervais is perfect in this insubstantial but charming little film made of clever gags and performances and a few predictably sentimental beats. At its heart, it is an old-fashioned sort of romantic comedy, a story of three people and a plot gimmick that ends with a smile and a thought.
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MCT:January 4, 2009
At last! A good movie! Watching Ghost Town made me happy, made me laugh and it surely made me cry at a point. The humor is resounding and original, the characters (even the secondary ones) are excellently outlined and deeply analyzed.
Ricky Gervais and Tea Leoni's performances are wonderful. I did have a minor issue with Greg Kinnear whose performance didn't get to me. Maybe it was his role to be disliked by the audience.
However, this film is worth a watch, especially if you're looking for something more meaningful that your typical American comedy. It is profound and it perfectly portrays the change a man can go through when he begins to notice other people and not only himself. -
MCT:January 3, 2009
Hospital Nurse: [after Bertram's colonoscopy] "Come back soon.
Bertram Pincus: What a terrible thing to say in a hospital!"
On paper, David Koepp's Ghost Town sounds like a hackneyed rehash of a premise that's been, well, done to death. But ask any comedian and they'll tell you: the power of the joke is in the telling. And where it counts, Ghost Town is very well told, indeed: the comic voice of Ricky Gervais comes through loud and clear, and Koepp's vision of a classical Hollywood comedy creates a confluence not only of great performers but of considerable wit and heart.
Through misuse, "heart" has become somewhat of a dirty word when it comes to Hollywood comedies, but Koepp cultivates sentiment that's well-earned and sincere, not canned. On the way there, Ghost Town is as funny as any film to come out this year. At its essence, it's Topper multiplied, with Gervais' misanthropic dentist Bertram Pincus seeing dead people all over Manhattan following a botched medical procedure (some of the film's funniest scenes involve the brilliant Kristin Wiig as a purposefully inarticulate surgeon and Michael-Leon Wooley as her in-house legal counsel). Greg Kinnear plays Frank Herlihy, an urbane ghost (he died with his tux on) who remains in limbo due to "unfinished" business with wife Gwen (Téa Leoni). Though Frank was a cad with a girl on the side, he's had time to reflect on the depth of his love for his wife, and fears she'll go through with her plans to marry a human-rights lawyer named Richard (Billy Campbell).
Since Pincus is the only conduit ghosts have with the living world, he becomes a celeb to the lingering dead, and he can't hire security to keep them from hounding (aka haunting) him. Frank's force of personality puts him front and centre with Pincus, who Frank wants to use as spoiler for Gwen and Richard's engagement. As living nightmares go, it's a perfect storm for Pincus, who would rather sit at home alone with a crossword than have to suffer through a conversation with anyone ("It's not so much the crowds as the individuals in the crowds," he explains). Now he has demanding ghosts huddling 'round his bed and, worse, feelings stirring up from long-undisturbed depths. The beautiful Gwen - a mummy expert at the Metropolitam Museum - provides a strong incentive for Bertram to get back in the game.
At 102 minutes, Ghost Town doesn't have enough time fully to develop the internal logic of a world of ghosts with no boundaries, but Koepp's approach is smart and literate, from the visual and thematic complements of the mummy trappings to the perfectly judged exchange that ends the picture. The fertile dialogue and humour emerges from strong characters with interesting foibles, performed by actors keen on both comedy and drama. Though they're an unlikely pair, Leoni and Gervais develop a credible chemistry that follows a funny and involving arc from her initial appraisal of him (well deserved) as "a little bit of a jerk." Fast-talking Kinnear uses his quirky expressiveness to full effect and downshifts as required into just the right tone of wistfulness. Kudos also to Indian actor Aasif Mandvi as Pincus' drily reactive workmate and an ensemble of ghosts led by Dana Ivey and Alan Ruck.
Above all, Gervais (in his leading-man debut) once more proves himself a major talent, borderlining on genius. Without him, it's unlikely Ghost Town would pass the funny test. With him, the film's conversational rhythms are endlessly surprising, as Pincus falls into awkward conversational traps, makes misjudged attempts at being sociable, and generally despairs over the stupidity of his fate. Koepp's comic fantasy - of death and what happens next, of first impressions and getting deeper, of second chances - locates its own distinctive way of developing the age-old carpe diem theme. As Gwen eloquently puts it, "What happens matters. Maybe only to us, but it matters." If that's not a word to the wise, it's at least a word to the selfish and cold. And any film that can send out that word while being consistently funny deserves a wide audience. -
MCT:January 3, 2009
accually quite good! British actor in my opinion are better comedic actors than half of americas! i just love them (mony phython is my favortie!)
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MCT:January 7, 2009
I alughed out loard at this to the opint of needing to rewind because I missed whole lines. If you're a fan of Ricky Gervais you will too. He puts his particular brand of insane and uncomfortable comedy on this project. I've heard from some that they simply didn't feel this was quite enough, but I disagree. One of my favorite things was how it avoids the standard "comedy" and "romantic comedy" pitfalls. Everything isn't easy and perfect and things don't fit into simple molds, least of all Gervais's Dr. Pincus. The commentary track with Director David Koepp doesn't provide any insight, so probably skip that.
Comments
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ghosttownoutreachposted 159 days ago
