Ghost Town - Movie Review

It's just a little spin on the same formula that Hollywood has been using for ages - communication with ghosts. But what I like about Hollywood is that most times even the most formula-driven movies have some kind of a message, a feel-good factor that they leave you with. That's why I like them. That, and the pretty girls, of course!

In this one the pretty girl is Tea Leoni who loses her adulterer husband in a road accident. On the other side of the romantic equation is Dr. Bertram Pincus, D.D.S who genuinely hates people and lives only in his own little world.

Dr. Pincus, played by Ricky Jervais, goes for a routine procedure in the hospital, but something out of the routine happens. He finds that he can see ghosts. On investigation, it turns out that Pincus himself died on the operating table, for 7 minutes. Pincus doesn't even like to communicate with the living, he finds the intrusion of the ghosts much more annoying.

So, when Tea Leoni's dead husband Frank, played by Greg Kinnear, offers to take all those other ghosts with their "unfinished business" requests, off his back, in return for one favour, he is compelled to take it.

The story follows a more or less predicable to reach a very predictable climax, but in the course of this it manages to make the viewer laugh and sometimes ponder. The good thing about this predictable plot is the speed. It never loses momentum and keeps the wheels turning, without going into long, boring and heavy self-inspection kind of scenes. Pincus' dry, usually sardonic or sarcastic sense of humour did manage to make me smile and of course, I loved Tea Leoni. But I have to admit that Greg Kinnear has done a good job of acting as well, and the other supporting cast didn't give me any cause for complain either.

Conclusion: It's a good movie to watch for entertainment without expecting much in the way or originality or epoch-marking storyline.