Ghost Town (12A)

Director: David Koepp

Starring: Ricky Gervais – Bertram Pincus D.D.S, Greg Kinnear – Frank Herlihy, Téa Leoni – Gwen Herlihy

Ghost Town is a comedy set in New York that features Bertram Pincus (Gervais) as a man who after an anaesthesia-related problem, dies for 7 minutes and returns with the power to see the dead. The plot follows Pincus as he is followed around by various dead people, lead by a dead Frank Herlihy (Kinnear) to embark on the task of stopping Frank’s widow Gwen Herlihy (Leoni) from re-marrying with another man. 

Going into this movie as a huge fan of Gervais’ stand-up comedy, The Office and Extras I had high hopes for a dry-humour style comedy and was surprisingly not disappointed. I had doubts in the back of my mind that with an entirely American cast (save Gervais) would ruin the dry wittiness of Gervais and give it that almost ‘slapstick’ “oh-a-person-fell-over-and-that’s-funny” typically American style of humour. However as the film carries on you find yourself chuckling at the sarcastic, patronising and all-round witty comments used by Bertram that are complemented well by the often-heated banter between him and Frank. 

You find yourself becoming incredibly immersed with the characters and I felt myself relating more and more with Bertram and his cynical attitudes towards life as the film went on. However like most Hollywood films there are emotional developments shown in the major characters (Bertram and Frank) and it’s almost heart-warming to feel part of it. What I disliked about the film was some of the over-the-top dramatisations and the way the fiancé of Gwen was later portrayed as a generous man. For example you find out that he represents homeless people in developing countries, regularly gives to charity and a whole host of other amazingly-selfless traits and it gave me the feeling that the writers were trying to hard to make him a good guy.

A particularly bad part is when something bad happens to one of the main characters (not really a spoiler, it wouldn’t be a good film if it was all nicey-nicey) and he cries “Why God? Why?” into the air when surrounded by people. There isn’t really a lot more to say about this film. It’s by no means a blockbuster, but it’s definitely worth a watch – particularly if you’re a fan of Gervais’ work as a comedy performer.

I would also say that it’s worth watching if you’re a fan of sarcastic humour or just like films that are easy on the brain and can be watched with friends. If you’re a die-hard ‘art-film’ fan or just like picking holes in plots then I’d say give this one a miss, unless you’re particularly masochistic and just want something to rant about. There’s nothing that makes this film ‘special’ as such but there’s nothing that makes this film bad either. It’s light-hearted, funny, and easy to watch and I would definitely recommend it if you’ve got a couple of spare pounds and an afternoon free.