It can’t be. An old-fashioned high concept Hollywood comedy that’s charming and moving and funny? No wonder Ghost Town has floundered at the American box-office. Audiences simply couldn’t believe what the ecstatic notices were telling them.
Ricky Gervais makes a brilliant, if unlikely romantic hero as Bertram Pincus, an English dentist in New York with little or no concept of bedside manner. A practised misanthrope, Bertram makes no secret of his contempt for the rest of the human race until one fateful day when a seven-minute near-death experience during a routine colonoscopy leaves him with the ability to see dead people.
Despite many protestations, Bertram, anxious to get these pesky, needy ghosts off his back, is enlisted by the late Greg Kinnear, a scheming spirit who hopes to drive a wedge between his surviving widow (Téa Leoni),and a potential suitor. Screwball comedy quickly ensues.
Though primarily a star vehicle for Mr. Gervais, a terrific screenplay from director David Koepp (Secret Window) and co-writer John Kamps (Zathura: A Space Adventure) ensures that every cast member gets a laugh. Ms. Leoni has never been better. Mr. Kinnear is reliably, hilariously smarmy. And watch out for the wonderful Kristen Wiig (The Brothers Solomon) as an incompetent, self-absorbed doctor.
You’d have to think back as far as Groundhog Day to name a comedy that’s even in the same league.