Film of the Week: Ghost Town

Film of the Week

Ghost Town

I thought he’d wangle a few cameo appearances, pick up some anecdotes to share on his next few appearances on the Jonathan Ross show, then stick to the medium that made him.

So when Paramount announced a role for him in David Koep’s fantasy comedy alongside Greg Kinnear and Téa Leoni, I imagined he’d be the comic relief, not the lead. Which just goes to show how wrong you can be.

Gervais plays Bertram Pincus, a dentist with a surly unsociable disposition and a general indifference to people of any sort.

But after momentarily dying during a routine colonoscopy, he comes round to discover he can see dead people, like that kid in the Sixth Sense.

Unlike that unfortunate youngster, these dead people bug the hell out of him, in much the same way as living people do.

This is worse though: as the spooks want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy (Kinnear), who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen (Leoni).

Just to be rid of him, Pincus agrees, and soon finds himself in the middle of supernatural love triangle.

A promising set-up, you’d think. But it’s actually a disappointment as Gervais plays it so safe – the dentist is British, so no tiresome effort with accents – and his character is little more than a reprise of David Brent and Andy Millman,

There’s a grumpy touch of Tony Hancock in there too, and we all know how that particular TV icon fared in movies.

Writer-director Koepp seems loathe to pursue the comic possibilities of the premise, of a peevishly private man at the mercy of the spirit world, and concentrates on the more pedestrian tale of a man pursuing a woman who’s very much out of his league.

That’s where Ghost Town really comes a cropper. A woman like Leoni wouldn’t take a second glance at a man like Gervais in real life.

The further Koepp heads down that track, the more the film loses its initial zest and charm.