Review: Ghost Town

Téa Leoni and Ricky Gervais in Ghost Town

Ghost Town from 2008 is a comedy that slipped past me when it came out. It recently caught my eye on Netflix and I found it good for a lot of laughs.

The film stars Ricky Gervais as a dentist named Dr. Pincus. During a routine colonoscopy, he dies for 7 minutes. When he wakes up, he sees ghosts. Lots of ghosts. All these ghosts want him to do something to release them from where they are trapped (Manhattan) so they can move on to wherever it is ghosts go.

The chief and most annoying ghost is Frank (Greg Kinnear). Frank wants Pincus to somehow get his wife Gwen (Téa Leoni) to let him go. Turns out Pincus and Gwen live in the same apartment building, where Pincus has been rude to Gwen on numerous occasions. He’s rude to everyone – not just Gwen.

Other players in this film are Aasif Mandvi as Pincus’s dental partner, Billy Campbell as Gwen’s new boyfriend, and Kristen Wiig as the doctor for the colonoscopy.

The scenes between Ricky Gervais and Kristen Wiig should be used to teach master classes in comedic timing. They are brilliantly done and very funny. Most of the funny in the film goes to Ricky Gervais, who manages to get off some great lines and make his new friend Gwen (and me) laugh. Téa Leoni’s funniest scene is between her and her giant dog.

The plot is a little corny, the ending is mostly happy. It has a certain charm in spite of it’s predictable elements (can you take 3000 year old penis jokes?). If you enjoy something light and funny, look for it now while it’s on Netflix and Amazon. Give it a try.

Watch the trailer for Ghost Town

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpkN4CbxYYg

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