Film Reviews

Ghost Town

• Rating:
• Director: David Koepp
• Starring: Ricky Gervais, Tea Leoni, Greg Kinnear
• Details: USA / 102mins / (TBC)

I've recently had a bit of a love/loathe relationship with Ricky Gervais. For example, I love The Office, but loathe his often tiresome cameos in American films. They're not funny, and merely serve to remind us that he now has some very famous friends across the pond. With Ghost Town, however, he finally ‘walks the walk’ and headlines his first American feature - with a stellar, if unspectacular supporting cast and a director who's more famous for being a writer. Still, Koepp did helm the criminally underrated Stir of Echoes, so a steady head is guiding this one. The story sees Gervais's cantankerous dentist die for seven (or so) minutes whilst having a general procedure done, then waking up to find he can (whisper it) see dead people. Dead people are everywhere, y’see, but not in a creepy way; they just hang around until some past wrongs are sorted. This is where Gervais comes in: he's not really a ‘people person’ and will generally go to extreme lengths to avoid pleasant conversation. So when the aforementioned dead folk realise he can see them, he's given a barrage of requests to help them contact relatives - which he promptly ignores. When he meets the dead husband (Kinnear) of a hot neighbour (Leoni), though, he's forced to help him sabotage her impending marriage. There's no doubting that the set-up here is slightly formulaic; but Gervais finally offers proof that he can be as good on celluloid as he is on the small screen. He's pretty much in every single scene, and carries the film and the unlikeable character to a hugely pleasurable, almost endearing place. He's playing a moody Brit, which is no great stretch for him - but the script is littered with his wily improv, and the film is more entertaining, overall, for it. Koepp still has issues with pacing as Ghost Town is all over the place at times, but he generally delivers a solid comedy that’s nicely shot and acted. Ultimately though, it’s Gervais that really helps it transcend its wholly unoriginal set up.

Review by Mike Sheridan