| this week's Tribune review : David Koepp's GHOST TOWN [5/10] |
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Ghost Town USA 2008 Starring : Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear Director : David Koepp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ RICKY Gervais' career hit a rare speedbump last month when his debut Hollywood vehicle Ghost Town unexpectedly stalled at the U.S. box-office. The picture might be expected to do better on his home turf, but it's hard to imagine admirers of Gervais' snarkily envelope-pushing humour embracing such a thoroughly by-the-numbers, mainstream-oriented romantic comedy. A jowly-looking Gervais is Bertram Pincus, a middle-aged, misanthropic British dentist in Manhattan who suffers a mishap during a routine operation that leaves him able to both see and converse with the recently deceased - each of whom have some kind of pressing unfinished business involving their loved ones. Lone-wolf Pincus isn't best pleased at being suddenly in demand from such spectral supplicants - including dapper Frank (Kinnear), who wants him to save his widow Gwen (Tea Leoni) from the embrace of a supposedly unsuitable suitor... Writers David Koepp and John Kamps cobble together ideas from numerous forerunners stretching all the way back to the three Topper movies from 1938-41 - and, more recently, The Sixth Sense (the US poster's tagline: "He sees dead people - and they annoy him.") But they don't come up with anything sufficiently distinctive to make their variation stand out from the pack. Ghost Town, whose jauntily conventional soundtrack disappointingly (but predictably) finds no room for The Specials' edgy hit of the same name, is amusing rather that laugh-out-loud funny, taking the sappily sentimental route of Hollywood uplift rather than exploring the riskier territory where Gervais excels. Koepp's screenplay credits include numerous blockbusters - including the latest Indiana Jones romp - but as a director (most recently 2004's Secret Window) he surprisingly tends to lack much of an authorial stamp. Kinnear, who can play this kind of 'Ralph Bellamy' role in his sleep, is never remotely stretched, while the supporting cast makes lukewarm impact. There's also a distracting 9/11 subtext - the geographical setting, the beyond-the-grave communication - that lends the U.S. release-date of September 19th an opportunistic look. It's unfortunate that Gervais, though presumably encouraged to improvise many of his lines, doesn't seem to have had much input into the screenplay here - whereas on his next American project, This Side of the Truth, he's also co-writer and co-director. Ghost Town, therefore, looks rather like a learning-the-ropes experience for the star - one that only his most fervent fans need to catch in multiplexes rather than via its imminent DVD afterlife. Neil Young 14th October, 2008 written for the current issue of Tribune magazine  GHOST TOWN : [5/10] : USA 2008 : David KOEPP : 102m (BBFC) seen 4th October 2008, Vue Leicester (press show - CinemaDays event) |
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