Staff Picks Blog
What if one day you could suddenly see and hear dead people. What would you do?
I think I’d get seriously freaked out. But not Bertram Pinkus. He just gets annoyed. He’s not a social person with the living – why would he want to deal with the dead?
Thus begins last summer’s comedy Ghost Town, written and directed by David Koepp and starring Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, and Tea Leoni.
Bertram Pinkus DDS (Gervais) has no social skills. He has no friends and no social life. He goes out of his way to avoid socializing with his coworkers, and as tries very hard not to engage his patients or the people who live in his building. He’s a dentist because he likes the quiet that results from stuffing peoples mouths full of cotton. So when he realizes that suddenly he can see and hear the dead he just ignores it and goes about his business.
But then all of the dead people between his apartment and his office begin to realize that he can see and hear them. And they all seem to want him to communicate with the living for them. Especially the tuxedo wearing Frank (Kinnear).
Frank meets his demise at the very beginning of the film, and finds himself stuck for all eternity in Manhattan unless he can figure out what his unfinished business is. But one day he and Pinkus literally crosses paths, and Frank decides that Bertram is the only one who can help him. He believes his unfinished business is to break up his widow (Leoni) and her new fiancé.
But Pinkus will have none of it. He dislikes most of the living around him, why would he want to socialize with the dead? But they just won’t leave him alone – especially Frank. Frank makes a deal with Pinkus – do this one favor for him, and he’ll see that the rest of the undead leave him alone. That’s a deal Pinkus can’t pass up. All he wants it his organized life back, but you know that’s just not going to happen.
If you missed this one last summer like I did it’s definitely worth it. The blend of British and American humor is really great, and Gervais and Kinnear are both great at playing downright prats that you can’t help but like.
