GHOST TOWN: THE SYMPATHETIC DAVID BRENT
February 25th 2009 08:44
He does't want to see dead people: Ricky Gervais stars as Doctor Bertram Pincus in Ghost Town.
While Ricky Gervias’ sitcom, Extras, didn’t receive quite the exposure of his breakthrough effort, The Office, it still did much to further highlight the Londoner’s talents in front of the camera. With Extras’ Andy Millman, Gervais proved that he was no one-trick pony, gently colouring the struggling writer with many shades of hope, humour, ambition and disappointment, thus creating a sympathetic and ultimately compelling character. It’s this talent in front of the camera that steals the show in Ghost Town, as Gervais once more illustrates, almost grudgingly, what a fine actor he is.
He plays New York-based misanthropic dentist Bertram Pincus who, as a result of a botched colonoscopy, dies for 7 minutes. Unaware of his brush with the afterlife, Pincus leaves the hospital only to then be pursued by a variety of ghosts who, once they realise that he can see them, want his help to resolve the issues they have with the living they left behind. The most persistent is Frank, (Greg Kinnear), who offers to keep at bay the rest of curmudgeonly dentist’s pursuers if Bertram will intervene in his widow, Gwen’s (Tea Leoni) planned re-marriage to a human rights’ lawyer. Bertram, desperate to get rid of these ghosts, finally agrees to help Frank. But when he actually meets the ghoul’s erstwhile Egyptologist wife he can’t help but fall for her himself.
While the concept might be typical of the increasingly bizarre high-concept material that drifts like charred flotsam out of Hollywood these days, Ghost Town has a number of things going for it. Firstly there is the screenplay, which runs with the experience of its writers, John Kamps and in particular David Koepp (who also directed). This isn’t innovative stuff but classic old-school screenwriting, all crafted with the care of a master carpenter. On first glance, Pincus is an acutely dislikeable character, until you quickly realise the clever depth that’s been written into his existence. His aversion to people is simply a focused version of the dread everyone feels at times when we have to check the box of a social event and would rather just stay at home with our feet wedged firmly into our Danger Mouse slippers. And while an excuse is proffered later for his moribund behaviour, it’s almost not needed.
Of course, it’s hard to think if any of this would have been possible without the involvement of Gervais. Pincus seems to be virtually written solely for him, so well does he inhabit the character. Rolling with Ghost Town’s dramedic nature, where the film starts off tossing about zingers like a smartarse kid on a cola high before stitching itself more closely to its serious theme, Gervais illustrates the tight relationship that exists between comedic timing and dramatic timing. He now displays such a beautiful grasp of nuance – first on display in The Office and later developed in Extras – that it’s hard to think that he’ll ever be underestimated as an actor in the future. Throughout, he receives great support from Kinnear, with whom Gervais shares an undeniable comic chemistry, and Tea Leoni, an actress who Hollywood would be wise to rediscover, such is her gentle versatility.
Pincus can't avoid becoming the go-to guy for all sorts of ghostly problems.
Meanwhile, Koepp the director keeps things rolling at a handy clip and the performers all on the same slightly-oddball page. Even the most minor parts are handled meticulously by Koepp and delivered beautifully by their performers, whether it be Kristen Wiig as a spray tan-obsessed surgeon or Dana Ivey as a particularly mournful ghost. While the director does let things get a little loose and mawkish towards the end of the film, it’s almost unavoidable once Pincus realises what he has to do to turn his life around, and Koepp avoids sinking the whole affair by quickly returning focus to the film’s central character.
It’s a delicate balancing act but one that Koepp and his collaborators pull off. The love story set amongst a world of ghosts anxious to communicate with the living isn’t a new one, but the clever work on display in Ghost Town manages to toss some fresh spice into the mix and in the process illustrate that, in film-making at least, old-fashioned doesn’t necessarily mean out-of date.
Check out the trailer for Ghost Town below:
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