LUCIDMEDIA

I thought that there’d be no movie more insulting to women this winter than Bride Wars. So it’s a true tribute to Hollywood that there were able to release two of these movies within a month of each other. But I do applaud the studio for smart counter-programming by putting on a female friendly alternative to the Super Bowl, even if the film in question is horridly redundant, predictable and tacky. It’s like Fargo if it were done by the same people that make every ridiculous Sandra Bullock romantic comedy ever to come off the Tinseltown assembly line. This is to say that it’s just about one of the most contrived products to come out in the still early calendar year.

The formula follows simply. A trussed up executive from Miami is given the stewardship of a factory in Minnesota to modernize it for the production of a new protein energy bar. Young Lucy Hill (played by Renée Zellweger) is a corporate climber with designs on the CEO’s chair, so she’s a good soldier and is preparing to make the factor work through the purchase of new equipment and the downsizing of old staff. But what’s supposed to be an in and out assignment, becomes something deeper and much more heartfelt as Lucy connects with the town folk, which includes good looking widower and union rep Ted (Harry Connick Jr.) Lessons about the value of good, old fashioned American hard work and small town, Mid-Western values follow.

Also, it’s as syrupy sweet as the sticky stuff that’s the foundation of all Slush Puppy flavours, just not as colourful. The plot plays on the notion that typically smart people act stupidly to suit the circumstances. Like when Lucy first arrives in Minnesota during a blistering snowstorm, she leaves the airport dressed only in a miniskirt and pullover. Like what? She’s never watched the weather channel before? The idea that it might be cold and snowy in the northern US in the winter, never occurred to her? She’s also a typical girlie girl that’s never lit a fire in a fireplace that wasn’t attached to an electric switch; she uses a lot of them big words that you get from fancy college learning; and is, of course, desperate to get out of Minnesota. At first.

Ted meanwhile is a manly man. He likes shooting at stuff, listens to country music, and drives an American pick-up as he sticks up for the working man. He doesn’t care much for this city girl that’s a shill for corporate America. At first. But slowly the two grow on each other, and a love connection is made through an errant bullet to the butt in a near-unfortunate hunting accident. It’s basically all part of the tourist package. The film portrays Minnesota as a sportsman’s paradise with nothing else to offer the women folk but weekly, group scrapbooking and baking. Has anyone in this town ever heard of the internet? Or the library?

And praise be the Coen Brothers for beginning that perpetuation of the Fargo accent, because that’s the way everyone in small town Minnesota talks. Except Ted of course, because then he’d look too goofy and he could never get a girl like Lucy no matter how pretty he is. So we’ll leave the obvious goofiness to Blanche Gunderson played by Siobhan Fallon, who’s perhaps best known for playing Edgar’s wife in the first Men in Black. There’s a whole lot of “Don’t cha knows” and “You betchas” which might have been cute in 1996, but have become universal signs of the dolt in the post-Sarah Palin era. If nothing else, it’s indicative of how very unimaginative the film is, like it was put together with the romantic comedy edition of Mad Libs.

But the unfortunate truth is that despite its numerous flaws, New in Town is relatively harmless and not altogether unfunny. It’s got heart at least, and doesn’t feel to be a genuinely soulless, Hollywood film. But that doesn’t make it any less a horrible cliché at times; almost as horrible as J.K. Simmons’ ugly ass beard. But if you can look past all that, and the beard, than you’ll able to subsist long enough through New in Town to be only vaguely disappointed. As far as romantic comedies go, this is definitely no joke.

Once again, New York takes its place as the most haunted place on Earth as an easily irritated dentist discovers that he can see dead people and that he really doesn’t care for them very much. There have been a lot of movies about people with the psychic ability to see ghosts, and most of those characters have had rather ambiguous feelings about their special talents. But never, I don’t think, have I ever seen someone literally run away from their destiny to be the conduit between the living and the dead with their unfinished business.

Ricky Gervais is Bertram Pincus, the dentist in question. After being slightly dead for a period no greater in duration than seven minutes, he leaves the hospital and realizes that he can see ghosts. But more importantly all the ghosts realize that he can see them, and each one is eager to have Pincus handle their earthly work. One ghost in particular steps forward, Frank (Greg Kinnear), who promises to Pincus that he and the other ghosts will leave the dentist alone if he breaks up Frank’s widow Gwen (Tea Leoni) and he new boyfriend Richard (Billy Campbell). Pincus reluctantly agrees.

It’s got a good cast to be sure, led by the very funny Gervais, who doesn’t quite get to be his old self here, but always delivers his one-lines with pith and without pity. Gervais is also great bouncing off of Kinnear, creating a good comedic timing between the two; their scenes snap and pop as they trade snipes at each other. It’s too bad though that co-writer/director David Koepp didn’t open up the film more so that Pincus could interact in a greater capacity with more of the ghosts. As compared to Frank’s story, the other ghosts, and their reasons for haunting Pincus, are rather easily resolved and kind of clichéd. Although Koepp did one thing well in his favour by hiring Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig as Pincus’ surgeon; her brief role is one of the film’s definite highlights.

Koepp also creates a solid first hour of the film. As Gervais wiggles and worms his way out of his paranormal responsibilities, and is borderline verbally abusive if not just conversationally neutral, the film is incredibly funny. But of course, Pincus has to learn that being a jerk and treating people like crap is wrong and he has to humanize himself in order to win the girl and be a better person. And at a certain point, Ghost Town pretty much becomes an episode of The Ghost Whisperer as Pincus has to help the various spirits haunting him. The final third of the film is fairly pedestrian and a lot of the comedic life is sucked out of finale.

Gervais is great and a lot of the cast is pretty funny too, especially when working off of the original Office manager. But after the film you realize that you can’t really remember a lot of the laughs and the parts you can recall are really just heated leftovers of a lot of ghostly tales. Koepp, as a writer, is not exactly known for comedy so much as action/adventure stuff like Spider-Man, Jurassic Park and the latest Indiana Jones and Ghost Town has the feeling of a man straining to work outside his comfort zone. It borrows a lot from elsewhere and demands a lot of its star to carry the action on his own charm, which, admittedly, doesn’t appeal to everyone. Ironically, that man is one of the film’s few saving graces.