Movie Review: Ghost Town

Bertram Pincus is my hero!

Ricky Gervais stars as Bertram Pincus in "Ghost Town," a comedic version of "The Sixth Sense." Pincus is a dentist who basically hates people. He intentionally closes the elevator doors as people approach; he shows blatant disregard for people's feelings; and he enjoys his job as a dentist because it allows him to put things into people's mouths in order to stop from them talking. We get the impression that Pincus, despite having moved to Manhattan, would prefer that he were the only person on Earth.

During a routine colonoscopy, Pincus dies for 7 minutes. Unaware of this fact, he leaves the hospital and finds that he now has the ability (or curse, as he would have it) of being able to see and speak with dead people. One of the dead, Frank Herlihy, played by Greg Kinnear, approaches Pincus in hopes that Pincus can help him stop his wife from marrying her new boyfriend.

The two main leads, Kinnear and Gervais, are exceptional in their respective roles. Kinnear, one of the more underrated actors in the business, continues to impress me with his comedic roles. "Stuck On You," "Little Miss Sunshine," and "Ghost Town," were all hilarious films, largely due to his presence; and "Baby Mama," which wasn't funny overall, was good whenever he was on screen. Gervais, although not having starred in many films, has a very successful career writing comedy. He's written many episodes of "The Office," as well as an episode of "The Simpsons.

Gervais and Kinnear work wonderfully together and have very good onscreen chemistry. The dialogue in this film is simply wonderful, and writers David Koepp and John Kamps should be commended. Gervais and Kinnear are given great material to work with, and they flawlessly deliver witty line after witty line. This film is recommended based on comedy alone, it's hilarious. However, what really sets this film apart from other funny comedies is that it managed to integrate some heart into the story, without coming off as overly corny or forced. A lot of comedies feel that they can't just be straight jokes throughout the entire film, so they integrate some sort of "lesson" for the character to learn, or a romance, or a forced heartfelt moment that simply doesn't FEEL right. "Ghost Town," does an excellent job of setting up these emotional scenes, so when they happen, you actually feel what the characters are feeling. Then they even manage to integrate some comedy into the serious scenes, rather than simply just going serious over the final portion of the film. While not on par with 2008's reigning comedy champion, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "Ghost Town" still holds its own and should definitely be rented or purchased on Dec 27th.