Ghost Town
While the American version of his British phenom “The Office” has taken off big time, America- and American studios- still hasn’t really caught on to “The Office” and “Extras” guru Ricky Gervais, despite roles in films like “For Your Consideration” and “Night at the Museum.” Consider “Ghost Town”- co-written and directed by “Spider-Man” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls” writer David Koepp- your formal introduction to the deadpan Brit wit of Gervais. It’s an unexpected pleasure, even if it follows a great many things that are very much expected from such a film.
Gervais stars as Dr. Pincus, a stuck-up British dentist practicing in Manhattan who is oblivious to everyone but himself. He snakes cabs away from people, pushes the close button when someone wants him to hold the elevator for them, and don’t even try to talk his ear off while in the patient’s chair- that’s when he’ll need to take a mold of your teeth. Well, one day he goes in for a routine medical procedure. The next day, the doctors are sending him home very mums the word about how things went. But when he’s leaving, he suddenly gets an entourage following him; turns out that because of some inappropriately-administered anesthesia, he died for about seven minutes. Now, he can see the dead in New York. He makes a deal with one of them (a recently-gone businessman named Frank (Greg Kinnear))- if he can break up the impending marriage between his widow Gwen (Tea Leoni) and a human rights’ lawyer that rubs Frank the wrong way (Billy Campbell), he’ll make sure the spirits’ leave him alone. But with Pincus being the way he is, you just know this is gonna take some work.
Koepp hasn’t really hit it with me as a director- his previous efforts (the dark thrillers “The Trigger Effect” and “Stir of Echoes”) looked great in previews but felt like the same-old same-old when you saw the whole thing (although his 2004 thriller “Secret Window” delivered many of the goods). And anyone familiar with modern blockbusters knows his scripts are kind of hit-and-miss as well (though they do hit more than they miss- see “Mission: Impossible,” “Jurassic Park,” and “War of the Worlds” in particular). But with “Ghost Town,” he and co-writer John Kamps shows a sharp hand for laughs from all sources- character, plot, situations- and comes up with a winner. Apart from being very very funny- if I had my way, Gervais would be a star in the colonies as a result of this film, with his slow-burn personality translating beautifully to the material- it’s an unexpectedly touching movie that looks at what gets left behind when someone dies, both from the standpoint of a ghost wanting to make sure the people they left behind (Kinnear delivers another spot-on supporting turn in a career full of them) and from the people left behind (Leoni’s melancholy Gwen is whip-smart and immensely appealing), and the trans formative power of change for even the hardest cynic. The film isn’t all moving movie sap, though; Koepp knows how to hit an audience’s funny bone. It helps that he has a cast and star in front of the camera all capable of the same magic. “Ghost Town” hits all the right notes, and leaves a lasting impression.
