Seeing ghosts is always a fun theme for a movie. In most you have either children (The Sixth Sense) or psychics (Ghost) having the curse – or gift – of seeing ghosts…the rest are just trying to kill the living. The other, less explored avenue is when the main character has a near death experience that allows them to get the sight. The only one I remember is The Frighteners, with Michael J. Fox – a highly recommended DVD, if you haven’t seen it yet.
Ghost Town centers on a very selfish, isolated dentist, Dr. Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) , who doesn’t hate crowds, only the people in them. This, amongst other little quirks, leaves him with severely hampered people skills. After a routine operation kills him for seven minutes, Dr. Pincus quickly discovers that he now has the ability to see ghosts. All of whom want something from him, especially Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) , who wants him to break up the impending marriage of his widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni) , in exchange for ridding him of the pushy spectres.
The comedy in this flick is sparse, but it makes up for it by making those moments exceedingly funny. Both Gervais and Leoni were fantastic. I’ve never seen Leoni laugh like that in any film, which leads me to believe some of those moments were purely real. Kinnear, who has thrived on supporting roles, shows why he likes living there. It’s a definite comfort zone for him and he plays the part effortlessly.
The plot wasn’t surprising, and there wasn’t some magical twist at the end, but the story is engaging enough and very entertaining. Ghost Town should be on your must see list for the fall.
