Funny 'Ghost Town' is perfect for Gervais' stuffy-Brit act
By Phil Villarreal
Pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.18.2008
Just when uppity dentist Bertram Pincus thought he couldn't possibly despise people any more, he starts to see dead people, who bother him even more.
Played with dry, understated command by Ricky Gervais in "Ghost Town," Bertram — who died and was resuscitated during a surgical procedure — reacts differently than other movie or TV characters do when confronted by lost spirits.
He ignores them.
Ghosts follow him like kids do the ice cream truck. A man begs Bertram to retrieve his devastated son's lost stuffed animal. An old woman needs Bertram to deliver a note to her descendant. Construction workers beg him to comfort a heavy-machinery operator who mistakenly thinks he caused their death. Bertram treats them like telemarketers.
He's just as vile to the living. When a neighbor asks him to hold an elevator, Bertram pretends that he's pressing the hold button but really is closing the doors. At work, he'll stuff cotton into patients' mouths just to shut them up.
A piece of work, this guy. The material plays to Gervais' wheelhouse and is the perfect vehicle to move him from the ranks of snob TV (the British "The Office" and HBO's "Extras") to movie stardom.
Director David Koepp ("Secret Window"), who wrote the screenplay with John Kamps, never tips his hand as to whether Bertram will undergo a typical epiphany. Since this is a comedy, and a joyfully mean-spirited one at that, all bets are off.
Recently deceased Frank (Greg Kinnear), who was hit by a bus while trying to arrange a love nest for his mistress over the phone, is bent on breaking through Bertram's defenses. Frank wants Bertram to stop his widow, Gwen (Téa Leoni), from marrying a self-righteous stooge. Bertram only agrees because he gets the hots for Gwen, who happens to be the neighbor he stood up in the elevator.
You don't often see comedies that hold up well dramatically, such as "As Good as It Gets", but "Ghost Town" succeeds on all levels. Gervais, displaying the same range he showed in the boundary-crushing, autobiographical second season of "Extras," explores a character whose hard shell is a side effect of his despair. There's a growing poignancy as Bertram reflects on mortality and the need for closure.
Praising a comedy for its story and heft might seem as much of a red flag as talking up the personality of a blind date, but rest assured "Ghost Town" brings the goods.
Several scenes, in which Gervais indulges his coarse side to the bewilderment of everyone around him, are so priceless you hope they find their way to YouTube. Bertram's scenes with his double-talking surgeon (Former Tucsonan Kristin Wiig) are among the aces.
With "Ghost Town," Gervais proves he's funny enough to make the dead laugh.
0 Comments on this story
