Ghost Town — PG-13

The story

Anti-social dentist Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) loves his work. With cotton packed in his patients' mouths, they can't talk. He likes that. During a colonoscopy, Dr. Pincus dies for 7 minutes. Now he sees dead people - and they annoy him. They pester him to finish their unfinished business. Most annoying is dead philanderer Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear). Frank wants Bertram to convince his widow Gwen (Tea Leoni) that marrying lawyer Richard (Billy Campbell) is a bad idea. Bertram doesn't want to help anybody.

Will Bertram fall for Gwen? Does Gwen leave for Egypt? What happens to Frank? Will you enjoy this offbeat romantic comedy? See it for answers.

Actors

British comic actor Ricky Gervais is lots of fun as curmudgeon dentist Bertram Pincus. He's smart, obsessive, misanthropic, and hates cats. "What sort of man wastes his affection on a cat?" he says. Well-meaning live people like colleague Dr. Prasher, appealingly played by Aasif Mandvi, torment him. Noisy, pushy, demanding, frustrated bunches of dead people bother Pincus even more. Greg Kinnear is recently deceased Frank Herlihy, unfaithful husband of archaeologist Tea Leoni, and spokesman for the dead. He's quick and funny in his many scenes with Gervais.

Others in the cast include excellent Tea Leoni as new widow Gwen, Billy Campbell as earnest, tall but tedious lawyer Richard, and Kristen Wiig and Aavon Tveit as defensive surgeon and anesthesiologist. Explaining why Bertram's errant colonoscopy team is gone, Wiig says, "Here at St. Vincent's, we have a very strict three-strikes policy."

Other comments

"Ghost Town" is a clever and funny romantic comedy. Director-writer David Koepp and co-writer John Kamps' script is smart and unexpectedly offbeat. Bertram says of his colonoscopy prep, "It was like a terrorist attack down there in the darkness, chaos and screaming." The script is part send-up of "The Sixth Sense" (1999) and part homage to Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946). Dead people and angels transform Scrooge and George Bailey just as deceased Frank ("think of me as your guardian angel") transforms Bertram. In case we miss the moral, "Ghost Town" shows us Einstein's advice, "Only a life lived for others is worth living."

An adult date flick, it's PG-13 for language, sexual humor and drug references. Just 102 minutes and filmed in beautiful New York City.

Final Words

Ricky Gervais sees ghosts,

And says, "I am annoyed,"

But "Ghost Town" is a treat,

I say, "See and enjoy."