Otherworldly Laughs Abound in ‘Ghost Town’

By DAVID SALAZAR; GN

BY DAVID SALAZAR

GENERATION NEXT

The mastermind behind The Office — Ricky Gervais –hasn’t let anyone down in his first lead role in a major movie. Gervais, Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine), and Tea Leoni (Fun with Dick and Jane) comprise the otherworldly cast of Ghost Town. This movie had everyone in the theater laughing out loud and leaving the movie with a smile.

Bertram Pincus (Gervais) is a fastidious dentist with no people skills. While undergoing a colonoscopy, Bertram dies for seven minutes and is brought back to life. Unfortunately, his ordeal not only left him with a clean bill of health, but the ability to see dead people. For a guy who hates the living, the dead prove to be a bit too much to handle — especially Frank (Kinnear) who enlists Bertram to help ruin his widow’s engagement to a human-rights lawyer. Bertram falls for Gwen (Leoni), and comedy ensues.

I saw the trailer for this movie and thought that it looked weird — even the overview makes it sound ridiculous — but Ghost Town made me laugh harder than any movie in recent memory.

Gervais is an utterly overlooked and underappreciated comic genius. Kinnear and Leoni complement Gervais’ comedy well and do well in their respective roles. Despite the terrible trailer (with a terrific Beatles song) and the fact that Ghost Town ranked lower at the box office than Dane Cook’s My Best Friend’s Girl, which had mediocrity stamped all over it, Ghost Town is a must-see for anyone who enjoys British humor, romantic subplots, laughing hysterically and poop jokes.

David Salazar is a sophomore at Santa Fe High School. You can reach him at

davidjsalazar@gmail.com.

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