GhostTown
GhostTown is a rib tickling take on the old “I see dead people” cliché. Britain’s Ricky Gervais brings his “brilliant” subtle sarcasm to the role of Bertram Pincus, a transplanted New York dentist with an uber anal personality who ironically runs into trouble during a colonoscopy. Foregoing a local and electing for a general anaesthetic the worst that can happen does happen and he dies briefly on the operating table. By the way comedy kudos to Kristen Wiig as the litigation dodging surgeon responsible for this mini mortification. This trauma leaves Bertram with the unique ability to see ghosts of the dearly departed and New York appears to have a lot of them. Most vocal and persistent is Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear). As the cliché goes, these spirits are unable to leave earth because they have unfinished business and they all want the reluctant dentist to help with. Frank’s reason for a delayed departure isn’t so clear other than he’s determined to sabotage the upcoming marriage of his widow Gwen (Tea Leoni). The rest of the story is textbook except for the text which is remarkably well written and half the reason this predictable story works so well. The other half is Gervais spot on delivery of that text.