Ghost [M]

Happy couple, Molly and Sam’s, relationship is cut tragically short when Sam is killed during a street robbery gone badly. Now, living as a ghost in their house, Sam is trying desperately to connect with Molly, to tell her that he’s still there. Whilst trying to connect with Molly, Sam discovers that his death was not an accident, but a setup: he was murdered. So he forcibly employs the help of a reluctant and cynical psychic to help solve the mysterious circumstance of his death and save Molly from harm. 

Famous for its iconic love scene of Demi Moore doing pottery with Patrick Swayze massing her hands against the immortal Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, Ghost is a film that really milks it. To be brutally honest, we could have done without, practically, the first forty minutes to hour of the movie, as all it does is introduce the characters and the hero’s workplace. At the end of the day, I think this movie was flimsily cast and, even though it had potential, it wasn’t pushed in the right direction to reach that full potential. 

Happy couple, Molly and Sam’s, relationship is cut tragically short when Sam is killed during a street robbery gone badly. Now, living as a ghost in their house, Sam is trying desperately to connect with Molly, to tell her that he’s still there. Whilst trying to connect with Molly, Sam discovers that his death was not an accident, but a setup: he was murdered. So he forcibly employs the help of a reluctant and cynical psychic to help solve the mysterious circumstance of his death and save Molly from harm. 

My major beef with this movie is that it tried to be too many things at once. It’s dead boring for the first thirty to forty minutes, in which nothing happens. Then, after the death, it takes on this lightly comedic veneer, with most of the comedy being brought forth by Whoopi Goldberg. It then pursues a more romantic path, trying to emphasise and create this great love that never really existed to begin with. And, finally, it veers towards a more sinister and supernatural thriller game, which I think was the way it should have gone earlier. Essentially, this movie had no idea what it was capable of and, therefore, it just treaded water in all these different genres, trying to find a place where it could keep properly afloat. It was too uncertain and trying to be too many things. 

Aside from the story, which had great potential, the best thing is this film was Whoopi Goldberg and even then, she brought comic relief to a dramatic film. Patrick Swayze could not do the dramatic lead to save his life, and Demi Moore was just there. 

I have to say though, that the sound editing was rather good. The weird sounds that happen when the ghost goes though solid object was very good. 

Also starring Tony Goldwyn, Rick Aviles, and Vincent Schiavelli, Ghost is an interesting film, with a good story, no doubt, but it just tried to be too many things at once. Filled with action, betrayal, comedy, murder, drama, and romance, this was a film that just did not really know what it had. The story had such great potential and, unfortunately, it was not cast or filmed in a way so as to push that potential in the right direction and to its limit.