The chief pleasure of
Gervais stifles the loose-cannon mannerisms of his "Office" persona to play Dr. Bertram Pincus, a high-end
Pincus finds himself surrounded by company of a non-living sort after a routine colonoscopy goes awry. He wakes from the procedure only to be told that he had died for seven minutes, just long enough so that he is empowered with the ability to see dead people wherever he goes. Suddenly, the misanthropic dentist is being stalked by dead construction workers, dead cops, a dead naked guy and a dead
The most persistent of the lot is Frank Herlihy (
Breezing into screwball-romance terrain charted by such otherworldly standards as "Blithe Spirit," "Topper" and
Gervais is a master of the flustered broken thought, and Koepp takes full advantage in scenes that pit Pincus against a distracted doctor (a droll
The filmmaker is less successful in the give-and-take between Gervais and Kinnear, whose one-note character quickly overstays his welcome. And too many encounters are allowed to sputter out lackadaisically, as if the director were waiting for Gervais to buoy them with a bit of improv. A bit of politically incorrect humor about the Chinese feels like a gratuitous sop to "Office" fans, and a scene in which Pincus corners a romantic rival in the dentist's chair only teases at its sado-comic possibilities.
Audiences who feel battered by Hollywood's usual hard-sell approach to farce may be disarmed by Koepp's soft touch and inclined to credit blandness as understatement. Of all the film's classic predecessors, "Ghost Town" suffers most when balanced against
But then Minghella never demanded the walloping suspension of belief required by "Ghost Town." Or am I the only one who finds it unfathomable that a dentist as hostile and contrary as Gervais' Dr. Pincus could work up a practice thriving enough to underwrite a split-level flat on Fifth Avenue? Isn't the prospect of a
"Ghost Town." MPAA rating: PG-13 for some strong language, sexual humor and drug references. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes. In general release.