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Is He Having A Laugh? | Ricky Gervais can’t escape the dapper spirit of Greg Kinnear in Ghost Town.

GHOST TOWN
Directed by David Koepp. Starring Ricky Gervais, Téa Leoni, Greg Kinnear. Now playing
****

So a New York dentist walks into a doctor’s office for a routine colonoscopy. They put the dentist under, conduct the procedure, and when the dentist wakes up, he can see dead people — annoying, persistent dead people who won’t leave him alone until he helps them with unfinished business.

Ghost Town’s premise may not sound particularly promising, but the punchline is that it’s actually a quite enjoyable, if a bit familiar, romantic comedy. It features British comedy star Ricky Gervais as Bertram Pincus, a misanthropic dentist who is utterly opposed to interacting with people; it’s not large groups he despises, just the individuals within them. So when his sixth sense kicks in, he refuses the requests of all but one lost soul, Frank (Greg Kinnear) — but only because Frank promises to keep the other ghosts at bay. What’s Frank’s request? Keep his wife Gwen (Téa Leoni) from remarrying.

Of course, Bertram isn’t a stretch for Gervais, who’s made a career playing awkward, antisocial curmudgeons in Extras and the British version of The Office. We’ve seen all this stuff before, in Ghost, in Always, even in (shudder) Over Her Dead Body. But writer/director David Koepp — whose credits include Panic Room, Jurassic Park, and Carlito’s Way — keeps the film refreshing through unique settings and subtle, witty writing. Even the lightly scatological bit about Pincus going for a colonoscopy works as a cute metaphor — the guy’s got a stick up his ass that definitely requires removal — and a great way to introduce the character, having him rebuke his doctor’s casual bedside manner.

There are other subtleties, too, that help Ghost Town hop over the deathtrap of clichéd romcoms. Where most movies would require the lead to undergo a complete personality transformation to win the girl, Pincus charms Gwen by being his cynical, blunt self. Leoni is, as always, an ideal comedic foil, and has a surprising amount of chemistry with Gervais. There’s also no “nice guys finish last” mentality here: Gwen’s new fiancé is actually a great guy, despite Frank’s objections. There isn’t even a clichéd romantic setting or first kiss; Koepp’s idea of romance includes Egyptian mummies, tooth decay, and Pincus’ sensitive gag reflex.

It’s not often that you see a modern romantic comedy that simply allows its stars to interact instead of placing all sorts of artificial plot contrivances and misunderstandings in their way. You wouldn’t know it from most films, but isn’t that how most people fall in love — by spending time with people they like and are compatible with? Ghost Town may be about a man who can see dead people, but in a sense, it’s one of the more realistic Hollywood romantic comedies in months.