Ghost Town

Starring Ricky Gervais, Téa Leoni, and Greg Kinnear.

Fans of the U.K. version of The Office would never accuse the show’s creator and star, Ricky Gervais, of possessing too much charm. To whatever extent that show’s nervous lead character, or the one he plays on Extras, wants to be liked—well, that’s really what makes the guy so irritating, isn’t it?

Ghost Town, then, pulls off the remarkable feat of putting Gervais at the centre of a tale that can only be viewed as charming. This is even more impressive considering that this relaxed romantic comedy was written and directed by David Koepp, who’s known for writing blockbuster action movies, including Mission: Impossible and the Jurassic Park flicks.

Here, the setting is Manhattan at its mellowest, with only the British comic’s dyspeptic dentist Bertram Pincus oblivious to autumn in New York City. Things change when a troubling encounter with a surgeon, played hilariously by Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig, leaves him with the strange ability to see the recently deceased. He’s haunted by one ghost in particular: the suavely sleazy Frank (the perfectly cast Greg Kinnear), who’s still hanging around after biting the big one just as he was about to get caught cheating on his wife.

Turns out said Mrs., Gwen (an ultra-likable Téa Leoni), lives in Pincus’s building, so Frank decides the dentist might be able to help him break up Gwen’s new relationship with a human-rights lawyer (Billy Campbell), because the guy’s just too perfect. You can figure out what follows, except that Koepp and company manage to make our stubby hero’s growth as a person—and a romantic presence—quirkily circuitous. Considering that “New York is lousy with ghosts,” as Frank puts it, the handling of other supernatural beings smacks of missed opportunities.

But the movie offers plenty of unexpected pleasures, including The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi as a dental colleague who gets tired of being nice—just as Gervais’s character starts to get the hang of it.