Sunday, December 10, 2023

Ghost Town (2008)

Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) is a misanthropic dentist.  He leads an unremarkable life in New York City.  All goes awry when he has a colonoscopy.  No sooner is he leaving the hospital than he discovers he can see ghosts.  Once the ghosts know he can see them, they start following him and asking him to do this or that.  Returning to the hospital, he learns that he died for a few minutes during his procedure!  What to do about the ghosts?  Frank (Greg Kinnear) is a tuxedo clad ghost who offers to keep the other ghosts away if Pincus will do him a favor.  Frank doesn't want his widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni), to marry Richard (Billy Campbell).  It turns out that Gwen lives in the same building as Pincus and they have had multiple negative encounters that he does not recall but she remembers vividly.  How is he going to woo her away from Richard, who appears to be an ideal man?

Where in The Sixth Sense the dead did not know they were dead, here they are entirely aware.  All of them are seeking out Pincus to finish their unfinished tasks so they can move on.  Some are innocuous - make sure my daughter sees the letter I left for her - while others are not - a hitman asks that Pincus kill the last guy on his list.  The story arc is to have Pincus go from a misanthrope to a decent human being.  He's a lot funnier as a misanthrope, but it is satisfying to watch him become a better person.

Light and fun.  Good entertainment.  Recommended.

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