Ghost Town

Review by Sean Lynch
View Trailer: Ghost Town

If there is one thing the world has been doing since The Office finished it's run (and made way for Ricky Gervais to become the biggest comedic British export since John Cleese) - it's that we all seem to wear "David Brent" tinted glasses.

As much as I adored The Office - it's not Gervais we love, it's his hapless alter ego David Brent.

Gervais and Merchant's follow up, Extras, was uneven at best, relying on the goodwill of their past success to overshadow the fact that Extras was just that little bit dodgy.

Aiming for "cynical reality and depressing" over "sad and black humour", Gervais seemed to forget what the aim of comedy was under the weight of his own ego and his efforts of "going against the grain".

So it's seems somewhat odd that the first major Hollywood lead role from "the funny little fat man" who has built a career on "avoiding formula at all costs" is in a film which is so formulaic - it' seems like the same movie has been made at least three times now.

Ghost Town follows Ricky Gervais as Bertram Pincus, a man whose people skills leave much to be desired and whose outlook on life is grim - at best.

After Pincus dies unexpectedly (but is miraculously revived after seven minutes) during a routine colonoscopy, he wakes up to discover that he now has the ability to see and speak with ghosts. Even worse, they all want something from him...

Enter the recently deceased Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) who pesters Pincus into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen (the smoking hot, Tea Leoni). But love soon gets in the way which puts Pincus squarely in the middle of a love triangle (or love square, if you include ghosts).

Gervais' David Brent was arrogant, selfish, self involved and totally void of any redeemable features - but he was also too dumb to know any better. That was the key, a lovable buffoon.

Ghost Town's Bertram Pincus is simply an extension of Extras Andy Millman - and the flaws of both characters remain the same. Both are arrogant, selfish, self involved, cynical and totally void of any redeemable features - yet they both are smart enough to know the difference.

Imagine if George W. Bush made all of the same decisions he made, but this time, he wasn't a cartoonish oaf. Imagine he was, say,  Kevin Rudd. See what I'm getting at?

Not so much a forgivable moron as he is, well... a bit of a c*nt.

Greg Kinnear, as the "sarcastic sidekick", doesn't help the cause either. Despite Seth Rogen (in the TV series Undeclared) proclaiming he enjoyed "the always likable Greg Kinnear", there was something about Kinnear that always irked me.

Kinnear always seems to come off as quite sleazy. The sort of guy you wouldn't trust around your girlfriend because he would flirt with her in front of your face, then tell you all the reasons why you should dump her behind her back, only to discover that he has been pounding her nightly for at least two years.

So what we've got with Ghost Town is two hours with a c*nt and a sleaze.

Tea Leoni saves the film from being a total wash out. She is attractive, likable and somehow manages to fool the entire audience that a genuine romance could exist between her and any of Ghost Town's characters - a skill that should really be commended.

Kudos must also be awarded to SNL's Kristin Wiig (a gal who is making a habit of pulling off some killer scene stealing moments in plenty of big name comedies) who offers up the only genuine laughs in the entire film.

While writer/director David Koepp tries valiantly to try and inject something new (ie: Gervais' patented "Anti-Joke-Pro-Realism" opposite comic sensibilities) into a fairly stock-standard rom-com, the mix just doesn't seem to work.

In a way, you kind of have to wonder if the film would have been better off with the likes of Jack Nicholson or Justin Long in the drivers seat and Gervais as the sarcastic ghostly sidekick.

Essentially, Ghost Town isn't funny or broad enough to be a generic crowd pleaser, nor black or self aware enough to be a darkly humerous biting Gervais-esque human social satire.

Let's just hope Ricky Gervais' next foray into cinema, Invention Of Lying (a film he has penned with The Office creator Stephen Merchant), steers back in the direction of the tongue-in-cheek arrogance that has made Gervais a star.

If it's afterlife cinema you're after, stick with Bill Cosby in Ghost Dad or Robert Downey Jnr in Heart & Souls - because any more of this "Comedy is drama" and I just might slit my wrists.

3 out of 5

Ghost Town
Australian release: 12th February, 2009
Official Site: Ghost Town
Cast: Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, Ricky Gervais, Alan Ruck, Kristen Wiig
Director: David Koepp