When I saw Ricky Gervais' name attached to this film, I was remembering The Office. Extras. Night at the Museum. He creates and plays roles in fluffy comedies that leave you smiling at the end but not a lot of thought with afterwards. This was not that. It was a comedy, yes, and it left me smiling at the end, but it also left me with the feeling that this was far more substantial a movie than I expected.
Gervais' character is not a jerk (as the trailers seem to imply) but just someone who's a loner and gets easily annoyed by stupidity in people around him. His solution? Avoid them altogether. This soon becomes a non-option as he is pushed by a demanding ghost (played brilliantly by Greg Kinnear) into the life of the ghost's widow.
There are plenty of laughs in here -- the scene where Gervais finds out that he died on the operating table but was resuscitated is hilarious -- but there's also a very moving love story, as well as the story of someone who genuinely does change to care about the people around him. A lot of movies try to do this convincingly and fail. This one doesn't even seem like the type that *should* try, and yet it succeeds.
I went in expecting popcorn entertainment and although my life wasn't changed drastically by this movie or anything like that, I came to care about the characters and the story in a much deeper way than I thought I would. Definitely a worthwhile movie. Possibly could grow to becoming a favorite. 4 stars.
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