Dir. David Koepp, US, 2008, 102 mins
Cast: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Téa Leoni
Review by Carol Allen
This has a delightful and original comic premise plus the unusual casting of Gervais making his American film debut as the, sort of, romantic lead.
He plays grumpy, self-obsessed dentist Bertram Pincus. When Bertram goes into hospital for a routine colonoscopy, he dies for seven minutes on the operating table. When he comes round he discovers that New York is alive with the ghosts of the recently dead and he’s the only one who can see them. They’re a very lively bunch, who are tied to earth because of unfinished business and they want Bertram to help them. The most persistent is Frank Herlihy (Kinnear), a philanderer in life, who wants Bertram to prevent the forthcoming marriage of his wife Gwen (Leoni). Frank and the other ghosts are on a bit of a hiding to nothing at first by looking for help from Bertram, who’s never put himself out for anyone alive, let alone dead. But once he claps eyes on Gwen and decides to prevent the marriage by getting her for himself, that’s when we get into the unlikely romantic comedy aspect.
Kinnear is very good in this. The opening scene, where Frank misses death by inches, congratulates himself on his narrow escape, then gets caught by an oncoming bus and finds he is now an invisible ghost, is very funny. He has an excellent light-comedy touch and makes this love rat, who really loves his wife, a sympathetic character despite his faults. Leoni too is very likeable as his widow Gwen. There are some amusing ideas, like as a ghost you’re stuck with wearing whatever you died in, which is why Frank spends the entire film in a tuxedo, as he was on his way to a dress do when he met his end, while one unfortunate ghost seems fated to spend eternity in his birthday suit. The film manages an unexpected twist or two in its telling and it is amusing and entertaining but the laughs don’t come as consistently as they should. The script fails to make the most of the comic potential of its central premise and would benefit from more wit, intelligence and perception.
The real problem with the film though is Ricky Gervais. It would be nice for him to succeed in America, but this particular vehicle doesn’t work for him. The fact that he’s an unlikely romantic lead and, even though he is playing a dentist, lacks the Hollywood-style perfect teeth, isn’t really the problem. Love isn’t just for the good looking. Think of Ernest Borgnine in Marty or Woody Allen in Annie Hall. For his stand-up routine and television work in The Office and Extras, Gervais has created a self-regarding, rather unlikeable, prat character, which works fine when he’s writing material for himself. But playing a role written for him by someone else, even though they’ve made Bertram a similarly self-regarding, emotionally constipated man, he doesn’t have the range as an actor to flesh out the character, make him live and engage our sympathies in the way that the characters of David Brent and Andy Millman did despite ourselves. Bertram remains stubbornly and irredeemably unlikeable to the extent that one hopes that Gwen will end up with her other guy, who’s a bit of a stuffed shirt but still an infinitely more attractive personality.
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