Ghost Town (2008)

Ricky Gervais stars as Bertram Pincus, a mean-spirited English dentist in New York who briefly “dies” on the operating table. When he recovers, he’s suddenly able to see the spirits of dead people. Not only that, but these spirits also want him to communicate with their living friends and relatives to resolve a matter that’s keeping each of them in spiritual limbo. Pincus is pushed by dead businessman Frank (Greg Kinnear) to break up a relationship between his Egyptologist widow Gwen (Téa Leoni) and a pompous human-rights lawyer (Billy Campbell). But inevitably he begins to fall in love with her. 

It’s not a bad premise at all, but the problem is that it’s simply not very funny for the first half. It improves considerably in the second half as the surreal ghost story resolves into a romantic comedy. But throughout the story, Gervais seems somewhat miscast and he’s far less funny when he’s reading other people’s lines. 

Kristen Wiig is entertaining as a surgeon who’s preoccupied with her fake tan, and the brief scenes with her tend to come alive. 

The film works round to a satisfying conclusion despite some annoying music (romantic scenes are more affecting with instrumental tracks than with someone singing “earnestly”), but it’s uneven and could have been so much better.