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Cinema Voyage - Akito Hirata, Filmhunter

 

Review - Ghost Town

January 14th 2009 13:48
I must admit I was quite looking forward to seeing the movie Ghost Town starring Greg Kinnear, Téa Leoni and Ricky Gervais. While I am admittedly more attracted to drama and thrillers than the comedy genre, the combination of the three leads had me intrigued.

Ricky Gervais stars as dentist Bertram Pincus, a bitter loner, who goes to great lengths to avoid human contact of any kind. When admitted to hospital for a colonoscopy, a complication ensues and he dies for seven minutes. When he comes to, he discovers he has the ability to see the dead and as per Ghost Whisperer and The Sixth Sense, the ghosts are grateful that they have someone to communicate with. This of course does not bode well for the British loner Pincus and he tries to avoid and outwit them at all costs.


Greg Kinnear as Frank Herlihy, one of the more persistent ghosts, convinces Bertram to help him with a task and in return he will convince the ghosts to leave him alone. The task - a seemingly simple one - is to break up the newly established relationship between Frank's ex-wife Gwen (Téa Leoni) and her fiancé Richard (Bill Campbell). Bertram decides that the most effective way to do this is to attempt to court her and win her affections. Téa plays a very likeable and amusing Gwen but unfortunately for the film, Ricky Gervais just doesn't quite cut it as the supposed romantic lead.


Frank, a liar and adulterer during his lifetime, is hardly a likeable character and the same can be said for Bertram. While the script had him becoming more likeable as the film progresses, for me it was too little too late and I couldn't empathise with either of the leading men.

Directed and written by David Koepp (Secret Window), unfortunately the script failed to lift the actors above midstream mediocrity.

A comedy with apparitions can be amusing, as shown in Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam, but somehow it kept missing it's footing. I won't deny it did have many humourous moments (the three strikes policy at the hospital for one), I just didn't seem to warm to it as much as I would've hoped.

Voyage Review: 2.5/5


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Comments
2 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Cibbuano

January 15th 2009 03:57
I've generally liked Gervais' work, so I'd be interested in this... though I agree that he doesn't make much of a romantic lead...

Comment by Michelle Sweeney

January 15th 2009 04:34
I too am a fan of Gervais. I enjoyed The Office and Extras which I thought he was wonderfully suited for.

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