Ghostly Town

The latest Ricky Gervais vehicle is out... no, that's not fair. Most of his previous appearances, when he's been in control, has been all about what I call embarrassment comedy, the comedy of humiliation. Not so here (because he's not in control), and Ricky Gervais turns in a pretty good performance.

The very basic script "weird guy gets girl" is straight forward enough, but the whole ghost angle, while falling in some very predictable tropes, in nicely layered in. One take they make is that the ghost thing is flipped around... which I picked up on before they hammered it home. Which is one problem this movie has: every now and then one character will just pop out this little speech that delivers a wee life lesson... but it is so obviously there to instruct the audience on what they are supposed to be getting from this. Oi.

Ricky Gervais plays a very grouchy character, but don't so without being too obnoxious. He's rude, but the kind of rudeness that comes from having no social skills, not malevolence. Greg Kinnear plays a smarmy bastard, so he's not straying far from type either. Tea Leoni is a more toned version of her usual characters, and still comes across as very hot.

A decent comedy picture, one that doesn't have Ricky Gervais be as abrasive as usual. Better than I thought it was going to be.

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