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Ghost Town
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Koepp
Produced by	Gavin Palone
Written by	David Koepp John Kamps
Starring	Ricky Gervais Téa Leoni Greg Kinnear Billy Campbell Kristen Wiig Dana Ivey Aasif Mandvi Alan Ruck
Editing by	Sam Seig
Studio	Spyglass Entertainment
Distributed by	DreamWorks
Release date(s)	September 19, 2008 (USA) October 25, 2008 (UK) February 12, 2009 (AUS)
Running time	102 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20,000,000
Gross revenue	$27,035,267

Ghost Town is a 2008 American paranormal comedy-drama film directed by David Koepp and starring English comedian Ricky Gervais in his first leading role in a movie. It was released on September 19, 2008.^[1]

Plot

A misanthropic dentist, Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais), gains the ability to communicate with ghosts when miraculously revived after a near death experience which lasts approximately seven minutes during a colonoscopy. Ghosts begin to pester him. A ghost named Frank (Greg Kinnear) makes a deal with him to break up an engagement between his widow and a lawyer. This proves rather difficult, as Bertram has been rude to Gwen (Téa Leoni) on many an occasion, including stealing a taxi from her and getting her in trouble with the building superintendent. However, once he displays his dental expertise to her, she recruits him to look at an Egyptian mummy's teeth, and Bertram redeems himself in Gwen's eyes when he identifies the cause of the Pharaoh's death. She invites him to dinner along with her fiancé Richard (Billy Campbell), a human rights lawyer, whom Frank says is after her money but seems to Bertram like a truly nice, if humorless, man.

Bertram gets to know Gwen more and finds himself falling in love with her. Gwen starts finding Bertram to be funny and charming, which makes her doubt her attachment to Richard, and she breaks up with him. Bertram finds out about their breakup by drugging Richard with laughing gas. After that, Bertram vows never to interfere in her life again.

Frank doesn't understand why he is still on earth if his "unfinished business" was to break up Richard and Gwen. Gwen, not being engaged to Richard any longer, says yes to a proposal that would send her to the Valley of Kings in Egypt for six months. As a going away present, Bertram gets her a new key chain, which she had before mentioned she desperately needed. But when he mistakenly reveals more information about Gwen that only Frank could have known, she demands the truth, and Bertram tells her the whole story about the ghosts. Gwen doesn't believe him and demands to know what Frank's worst nightmare was. Frank tells Bertram a fake nightmare, and Gwen, thinking Bertram is toying with her, walks away. Bertram demands to know why Frank lied to him, and Frank says "Because you're a heartless son-of-a-bitch who doesn't give a rat's ass about anyone but himself. Gwen's already had one of those (talking about himself)."

Back at the office, Bertram asks a fellow dentist (Aasif Mandvi) for medication that will help him forget Gwen. His colleague instead convinces him that his life would be better if he decided to stop being selfish and start helping people. Pincus decides that he will help the ghosts. He helps almost all of them with their "unfinished business" on earth, and realizes that the ghosts are still on earth not because they have unfinished business, but because the people they are close to are not finished with them.

Bertram realizes that the reason Frank cannot leave is that Gwen has not let go of him yet. He rushes to the exhibition at The Met, to the chagrin of Gwen. She asks him to ask Frank why she wasn't enough for him, and Frank says he's sorry, which Bertram tells Gwen. Gwen is incredulous that after his infidelity, all Frank would have to say was 'sorry' and thinks that Bertram is making it all up. He rushes after her and while trying to persuade her to believe him, gets hit by a bus. Bertram, now a ghost himself, watches with Frank. Gwen is crying over Pincus, then Richard comes and tries to revive him. Seeing how distraught Gwen is, Frank gives Bertram 'some advice' in case he is resuscitated. After talking to Bertram, Frank is finally allowed to leave the earthly plane.

Bertram wakes up alive in the hospital. He recovers and goes back to work where he meets Gwen, who needs dental work. Bertram tells Gwen the real nightmare, which was the advice Frank told him, and then assures her 'he found his way home.' The movie ends with Gwen saying, 'It hurts when I smile,' to which Pincus replies 'I can fix that for you.'^[2]

Cast

• Ricky Gervais as Bertram Pincus, a misanthropic dentist who gains the ability to communicate with ghosts^[2]
• Greg Kinnear as Frank Herlihy, a ghost who befriends Bertram^[2]
• Téa Leoni as Gwen, an Egyptologist and Frank's widow^[2]
• Aasif Mandvi^[3] as Dr. Prashar, Bertram's Indian American colleague.
• Billy Campbell^[3] as Richard, Gwen's love interest, whom Frank warns is a "bad man".
• Alan Ruck^[3] as a ghost competing with Frank for Bertram's attention.
• Kristen Wiig^[3] as Bertram's self involved surgeon.
• Jeff Hiller as a naked ghost
• Aaron Tveit as the Anesthesiologist
• Bridget Moloney as the receptionist

Production

Filming took place on the Upper East Side of New York City. Regarding his character, lead actor Ricky Gervais said, "Just what America wants: a fat, British, middle-aged comedian trying to be a semi-romantic lead."^[4]

Critical reception

Reviews of Ghost Town were mostly favorable. As of November 15, 2008, the film holds a score of 85% from reviews collected by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, who gave it a Golden Tomato for Best Romance Film of 2008,^[5] and a normalized rating of 72 out of 100 on Metacritic.^[6]

Box office

The film opened at #8 the North American box office making $5,012,315 USD in its opening weekend.

DVD release

Ghost Town was released in America on standard DVD and Blu-ray formats on December 27, 2008.^[7]

Soundtrack

1. "I'm Still In Love (w/You)" – Written & Performed by Dusty Wright (aka Mark J. Petracca)
2. "I'm Looking Through You" – Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Performed by The Beatles
3. "The Heart of Life" – Written & Performed by John Mayer
4. "What I'm Looking For" – Written & Performed by Brendan Benson
5. "Sabre Dance" – Written by Aram Khachaturian
6. "What I'm Looking For" – Written & Performed by Brendan Benson
7. "Sideways" – Written & Performed by Citizen Cope
8. "Which Way Your Heart Will Go" – Written & Performed by Mason Jennings
9. "Please Be Patient With Me" – Written by Jeff Tweedy, Performed by Wilco

The soundtrack is notable for being the first non-Beatles-related film to use an original recording of the song in the film. It also used it in the American and Canadian television ads, the second time a Beatles song has been used in that setting. The reason for this is the ownership of most of the Beatles' catalogue by Michael Jackson, recently came to an end.

References

External links

• Ghost Town official site
• Filming Locations from MoviePlaces.tv
• Ghost Town at the Internet Movie Database
• Ghost Town at Allmovie
• Ghost Town at Rotten Tomatoes
• Ghost Town at Box Office Mojo