I watched Ghost Town about a week or so ago and hope to watch it again tonight because I’m not quite sure what I think about it. I kind of liked it and kind of didn’t. I made a handful of notes:
- Greg Kinnear: Maybe it was the tuxedo, but I kept thinking of his role as David Larrabee in 1995′s remake of Sabrina (a better film than people think).
- Greg Kinnear again: Although Ricky Gervais was good, it was Greg Kinnear that stood out for me. Maybe because he was so much lighter than the other characters who all seemed a bit dreary and glum for a romantic comedy. (Was it a romantic comedy?)
- I also kept thinking of 1935′s Topper (Cary Grant, Constance Bennett and Roland Young).
- As suggested in #2, I found this movie too glum, despite the humour (which is quite funny).
- I love Téa Leoni. But I’m still waiting to see her in that fabulous comedy and/or romantic comedy that she should have. Where’s the script?
- I had to revise this post because I referred to the movie as Ghostworld. Duh! (A completely different movie.)
- Is it time for romantic comedies to get away from templates and just ramble a bit?
- I promise, I do know what I mean by these comments though it may seem they are all gibberish.
I think this is a romantic comedy. But it made me wonder if romantic comedies, at least of the traditional variety, are even possible anymore. Are we too ironic, too self aware, too internally focused that we can’t make them? In other words, are modern sensibilities such that we can’t make romantic comedies anymore?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Okay … so last night I watched it again and found it not nearly as glum as I did the first time. In fact, I didn’t really find it glum at all. I quite liked the movie. Go figure!
I had similar feelings, but basically liked it. Yes, it’s a romantic comedy (rom-com/fantasy hybrid), and evidently a conscious attempt on Koepp’s part to update the Screwball. Well-produced in that sense, don’t you think? NYC as “movie Manhattan”…
Weird about Tea Leoni, isn’t it! It’s as if she was born into the wrong era or something — always close but no cigar, and yet… she’s got it, whatever it is. Strange career. My own theory is that James Brooks’ misguided misuse of her in Spanglish dealt her a near-fatal blow; if that had been the great Tea Leoni role (which it could’ve, should’ve been, and went horribly, un-empathetically wrong), she’d have been getting better parts and developing better roles for herself, since.