Last night I was blown away by one of the most surprisingly wonderful motion pictures. Ghost Town looked like a light and funny romp and I love Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni so I bought my ticket and salted my popcorn.
There were only about 20 people in the theater on a Tuesday night so I had the 3rd row all to myself and I settled in to enjoy a comedy. I don’t usually see comedy films in theaters, preferring to see sci-fi or special effects type films that have BIG SCREEN action. Comedies usually get viewed on cable or DVD.
I laughed and laughed and snorted and squealed like a braying donkey (so much so that people leaving the theater took the time to tell me I had a “great laugh.” Ghost Town is brilliant written and so well acted by the lead Ricky Gervais I couldn’t believe it hasn’t gotten more press. Ah, well, maybe the movie elites were busy with a Britney story.
Creative, fresh, funny and poignant. Gervais plays perhaps the least empathetic human in New York, a dentist who does his work and goes home to be alone. While under anesthesia for a colonoscopy he “dies for 7 minutes” and gains the ability to see, hear and talk to dead people.
NOTE: The Saturday Night Live actress Kristen Wiig who is known for her bizarre interrupting “better than you” routines, and played the producer in Knocked Up, is BRILLIANT as the surgeon who has to reveal to the paranoid Gervais that he died on the table. Her obfuscating dialogue with Gervais is nothing short of comedy dynamite and should be studied by anyone who wants to be funny.
As funny as the movie was I was not prepared for the huge emotional arc that the snarky dentist would go through as he began to see the plight of the dead people who asked him to help them get closure and move on to wherever movie ghosts go.
Gervais had so convinced me of his hard boiled meanness I was nearly blown away as he started to see what was really going on around him.
I have to admit that this film made me look at my own selfishness and self absorption. As I’ve been mulling over my options about where to take this next phase of my life – I’ve gotten so wrapped up in ME that I forgot that there are a lot of other people on the planet too.
When the dentist’s partner sits him down and asks him how being such a total prick is working out for him – and how long he plans to continue with it – it hit me in the chest.
With all the lame and awful films asking for my $10 (and so many depressing brutal films made for twentysomethings) I wanted to find the writer, director, and producer as well as the Hollywood exec who let this film be produced and thank them all.
Ghost Town gave me laughter that released tons of endorphins, entertained me, and had the impact of a great inspirational speech – and it only cost $10.
