Movie Review: Ghost Town

by John Nolte

I dare anyone to see the splendid new romantic comedy Ghost Town and imagine an actor other than Ricky Gervais in the lead role as Bertrum Pincus, a Manhattan-based dentist so desperate to remain indifferent to the human race he chooses cruelty over contact. Without Gervais the movie had no chance. No one else could get away with playing such a thoroughly unlikable character, and without that character Ghost Town would be pure vanilla instead of what it is, the best romantic comedy to come out in years.

In screenplay parlance it’s called saving he cat – shorthand for the rule demanding your protagonist do something that will earn audience sympathy within the first twenty minutes. Not only does Bertrum not save any cats, he sneaks out on office parties, refuses to hold elevators for women burdened with packages, steals cabs and uses every opportunity to insult and dismiss anyone caught in his orbit.

Not since W.C. Fields has an actor so effectively remained watchable portraying someone so irredeemable. Fields’ secret was that we lived vicariously through his antics. Gervais’ secret, with his Lou Costello looks and Hugh Grant delivery, is an uncanny ability to project his characters’ narcissism as a shield for a pathetic pathos. It’s not that he wants to be a jerk, it’s that he simply can’t help himself. Think Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets (1997) but without affectation in place of character (good heavens, that movie’s overrated).

Gervais became a star with The Office, a brilliant BBC series he co-created, wrote, and starred in.  His character, David Brent (currently played by Steve Carell in the American version), was as complicated and interesting as Tony Soprano — and about as likable. Dropping a variant of that character into Ghost Town was a genius decision on co-writer and director David Koepp’s part.

The film’s gimmick is ghosts, but the screenplay’s so well written they’re thankfully an afterthought instead of used artificially to amp up the comedy or create mind numbing set pieces. Rather, the spirit angle is humorously, and later, quite touchingly used to enhance and explore our main character. In this respect Ghost Town closely resembles the classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical Carousel (1956) where the spirit angle is of little overall concern to a story that so richly explores regret and the human condition.

The ghosts arrive after Bertrum has a near death experience. These unfortunate spirits are stuck here on Earth due to unfinished business they can’t seem to let go of. Because Pincus is both alive and capable of seeing them, he’s the only one who can help. Unfortunately, he doesn’t care and only wants to be left alone, but one ghost won’t let him — Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear).

Herlihy died the same day his wife (Tea Leoni) discovered he was having an affair. After a year, she’s put her life back together and is now engaged to one of those too good to be true types. Desperate to break them up, Herlihy refuses to let Bertrum alone until he agrees to help. What unfolds from here is one delightfully funny and sweet scene after another.

This is the sixth film Koepp’s directed and easily his best. Most famous as one the top blockbuster screenwriters in the history of, well, ever, and Steven Spielberg’s go-to guy, Koepp seems freed up with his low-key comedy and determined to avoid the “wow” moments that made him a millionaire and instead focus on smaller human moments — and he succeeds. This is one of those films where a price tag left on the back of a shirt hits harder than any spaceship bursting through a city street — where watching Gervais look for an opening in his appointment book is far funnier than anything Judd Apatow’s ever grossed us out with.

Another refreshing element is the lack of any kind of spiritual or religious message. No bigger questions are asked or answered. No Hollywood mumbo jumbo, none of that silly “spirituality” nonsense. Anyone can watch and take away what they will from the story because the spiritual elements are both grounded and generic.

My one criticism is that Ghost Town is yet-another romantic comedy set in, you guessed it, Manhattan, and the budget was too low (reportedly $20 million) to shoot the city in any kind of refreshing or imaginative way. Frankly I’m up to here with romantic comedies set in Manhattan and  it also doesn’t make sense for a character like Bertrum, who loathes people, to live in the most populated piece of real estate in the country. What’s wrong with St. Louis, Milwaukee, Boise…? With such an original script why let every shot scream cliche?

Unfortunately, thanks to a lousy ad campaign, Ghost Town pretty much died at the box office over the weekend. I urge you to give it a look. You’ll have a lovely time and cast a vote for more films like this. A romantic comedy without a shirtless Matthew McConaughey or hyper-contrived meet-cute needs to be championed. That Ghost Town also happens to be one pretty great movie shouldn’t make this request too difficult.


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Posted Sep 22nd 2008 at 12:03 pm in Reviews | No Comments