#GHOST TOWN MOVIE MOVIE#

YouвЂ™ll not hear any musings on forgiveness of sins or predestination or salvation. Frank, who seems to have tallied quite a few unconfessed sins in his lifetime, does seem a bit penitent at the end, but we get the sense that he вЂњmoves onвЂќ because Gwen has also, emotionally, moved on. If there is a heaven awaiting good little ghosties, thereвЂ™s certainly no indication anyone might be destined for hell. These spirits are apparently trapped on earth until their loved ones get a bit of closure, and once they receive that, they fade away, going somewhere вЂ¦ nice.

#GHOST TOWN MOVIE MOVIE#

Though Ghost Town is largely about the afterlife, the movie is pretty noncommittal when it comes to defining ghostsвЂ™ final destination. When a guy needs CPR, RichardвЂ™s ready and willing to give him another shot at life. He tells Bertram of his work and encourages the dentist to come and help him with his third-world endeavors, where a dentist could do a lot of good. Eventually, though, he wises up and begins to right longstanding wrongs, which allows the filmвЂ™s spirits to leave New York with smiles and flashes of light.Д«ertram discovers that itвЂ™s OK-even rewarding-to be nice to folks and, when he helps Frank set his own ghostly feet on a track toward his вЂњeternal home,вЂќ Frank returns the favor by telling Bertram a secret-a small story, but one that could hold the key to GwenвЂ™s heart.Д«ack to Richard: HeвЂ™s a man who needs no such encouragement to follow EinsteinвЂ™s suggestion (and, incidentally, the BibleвЂ™s directive) to live for others. As he gets to know her-and starts to fall for her-Bertram does flash a bit of charm, but he reserves it just for her, rudely rejecting ghostsвЂ™ pathetic entreaties at every turn. He is a self-centered boor who, at first, canвЂ™t even be bothered to hold the elevator door open for Gwen. For another, heвЂ™s a human-rights attorney who travels throughout the third world helping the poor.ДЄ bit more about Bertram: HeвЂ™s a man who spends most of the film utterly disregarding everyone around him. For one thing, Richard actually seems to be a pretty cool guy. The favor? Frank wants Bertram to scrape GwenвЂ™s new fiancГ©, Richard, out of GwenвЂ™s life like so much plaque.ДЄlbert Einstein (on a poster, not his ghost) explicitly tells us in Ghost Town that, вЂњOnly a life lived for others is worth living.вЂќ This quotation serves as the filmвЂ™s moral crux, and the script is designed to lead our two obnoxious protagonists-Frank and Bertram-to that simple but important conclusion.Д«ertram agrees to FrankвЂ™s proposal, but itвЂ™s not long before he runs into problems. (He likes being a dentist because people who have their mouths stuffed with cotton swabs are less inclined to talk.) So this sudden influx of yammering ghosts-precipitated by a prolonged near-death experience on an operating table-is deeply unsettling.Frank quickly sizes up Bertram and makes him a deal: Do one favor for me, and IвЂ™ll get all these simpering specters to leave you alone forever. ItвЂ™s The Sixth Sense all over again, only this fellow-Bertram Pincus, DDS-can barely tolerate living people, much less dead ones. Get my motorcycle-riding wife to wear a helmet. Look for a stuffed squirrel underneath the car seat. They follow him like paparazzi on the heels of Miley Cyrus, peppering him with requests: Tell my kids to stop fighting. He sees all of New YorkвЂ™s ghostly populace, in fact, which makes him a celebrity among the Big AppleвЂ™s death set.

Then one day, Frank runs into a flustered fellow who, lo and behold, can see him. They do, however, tend to sneeze when they walk through him. ItвЂ™s a lonely death, for the living canвЂ™t see or hear him. Until then, he stalks Manhattan in the tux he was wearing at the time of his demise, desperately trying to get a signal on his Blackberry. FrankвЂ™s about as talkative a dead person as there ever was, doomed to haunt New York City for either a) all eternity, or b) until he figures out where all the peaceful, happy dead people went to. вЂњOhhhhh вЂ¦ not now!вЂќ are the first words out of FrankвЂ™s post-mortem mouth. And, thus, Frank was woefully unprepared.

And itвЂ™s a good bet that, at the very least, he would not have bought that West Village apartment for his mistress.Д«ut the curious thing about death is that none of us really know when weвЂ™re going to go. He shouldвЂ™ve treated his wife (Gwen) a little better. He couldвЂ™ve entered his time of death into his Blackberry: вЂњ2 p.m., Tuesday, get hit by bus.вЂќ He mightвЂ™ve been less of an obnoxious jerk to his colleagues. If Frank had known he was going to die, he wouldвЂ™ve planned things a bit better.

Ghost town movie