My advice is to watch the first twenty or so minutes of this movie and then walk away if you something else to do. The movie opens with Bertram Pincus D.D.S. (Ricky Gervais) a detestable, anti-social, crank struggling through the frustrations of his life. All he wants is to not be bothered - ever. We follow Pincus as he deals with patients at his dental office and then an incompetent surgery staff at a hospital. Throughout the opening scenes, Gervais shines giving what I believe to be the best comedic performance I've seen in a great long while. He has a talent for sarcasm and he's given prime material to display his skill...for twenty minutes. Gervais' Pincus is a perfectly defined and delivered character but he is drowned out by a clattering plot.

Pincus dies, at least for a while, on the operating table. After his brush with death he discovers he is able to see ghosts. Yes, the story echos of The Sixth Sense. Soon he is being chased around New York as the dead seek to get him to do favors. Fronting the mob of the dead is Frank (Greg Kinnear,) a adulterous lout who wants help breaking up his widow's upcoming marriage. When this plot begins to move it overtakes what is otherwise an enjoyable movie. Writer/Director David Koepp (Spider-Man) is kept so busy managing his story that he has to sacrifice his characters. The issue is that the plot is contrived and has no energy on its own. Koepp is forced to push characters into situations and motivations in order to force things forward. The entire time I kept wanting the story to settle down so I could get more of Pincus reacting to the world. C'mon Dave, stop it! Can't you see your lead is doing something great here?

I know Gervais has been around a while and he's seems to be someone people love or hate. This was my introduction to his work and I am very impressed. He obviously has the goods. I hope he pulls this Bertram Pincus persona out in another production. In the right setting, he could really offer something great.

I do recommend this movie not because its a good movie. Honestly, on a technical level this fails. I recommend the film based on two performances. First Rickey Gervais is in command of his role and given better circumstances could have given a classic performance. The other notable performance comes Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig. Wiig has a supporting role as the mousy, insecure surgeon who oversees the operation that temporaily kills Pincus. There's an old saying in acting circles "there's no small roles". She proves the addage. She's only in a couple of scenes and is ultimately incidental to the plot but she is hilarious and makes a great deal from her role. Again, this is not a great movie, its not even a very good one. It is good comfort cinema and I guarantee you will laugh at a few times and that's more than you can say about most comedies these days.



Related Reviews:
Greg Kinnear movies
Unknown (2006)
As Good As it Gets (1997)


Other Critic’s Reviews:
Roger Ebert
The Critical Critics

Labels: comedy, film, Greg Kinnear, Kristen Wiig, movie review, Rickey Gervais, Tea Leoni