Film Review: Ghost (1990)

(source: tmdb.org)

Patrick Swayze rose to Hollywood stardom as romantic lead in hit musical Dirty Dancing. In next few years he tried to build career based on his macho image and establish himself as bona fide action star. Somewhat ironically, film that permanently etched his icon in historical books was another one in which he played romantic lead. To make irony even greater, the role was one in which his character was, in a sense, dead for most of the running time – a titular protagonist of Ghost, 1990 fantasy romantic thriller directed by Jerry Zucker.

Swayze in the film plays Sam Wheat, successful banking executive who has just purchased huge apartment in Manhattan and started to renovate it in order to live with his girlfriend, sculptress Molly Jensen (played by Demi Moore). Their happy life together is brutally interrupted when the couple, while returning from theatre, becomes target of apparently random mugging on the street. Sam heroically tries to defend Molly, shot is fired and Sam, after chasing the mugger, returns to the scene only to find devastated Molly crying over his lifeless body. It takes some time for Sam to realise that he actually died and that he was, for some unspecified reason, left to dwell in the world of living as a ghost, able to observe but not physically intervene in life of his beloved Molly. One day, as he spends all of his time watching Molly, he finds that man who murdered him (played by Rick Aviles) has entered apartment in search of something and realises that Molly’s life can be in danger. In desperation, he tries to contact Oda Mae Brown (played by Whoopie Goldberg), self-styled psychic that charges money from clients trying to communicate with their dead family and friends. She is an obviously charlatan, but, by happy coincidence, discovers genuine psychic ability in case of Sam who manages to talk her into trying to warn Molly. Things get further complicated when he discovers that his former colleague and best friend Carl Bruner (played by Tony Goldwyn) not only wants to seduce Molly, but also was involved in money laundering scheme and that the street mugging wasn’t random at all.

Director Jerry Zucker became famous thanks to being part of ZAZ – formidable writing-directing trio that had made popular irreverent parodies. Ghost represented a complete detour from his career path at that time, a film quite different in genre in tone. Zucker himself admitted that he wanted to do something quite different and found the right material in script by Bruce Joel Rubin, screenwriter whose work on previous and unsuccessful films like Brainstorm and Deadly Friend, dealt with issues of life after death. Unlike with those two films, that belonged to science fiction, Rubin’s script for Ghost was strictly fantasy and had much simpler premise, inspired by author’s watching of Hamlet. Rubin tried to make a ghost story from the perspective of ghost and contemplated how such protagonist would deal with being dead and stuck in the world of living. From this came opportunity to branch plot into more generic genres – romance, suspense, a little bit of horror (especially in the scenes that show Sam’s terrifying experiences of confronting his own death and various spirits that live in background) and, of course, comedy. Rubin’s script, with the help of Zucker’s confident direction, manages to combine those different genre elements in effective narrative structure. Furthermore, unlike most ghost stories set in gothic surroundings of isolated house or castle, is set in big, modern metropolis and show ghosts – those who share Sam’s predicament - being as diverse as New York’s living population.

The film’s most memorable aspect and the one that probably contributed to its success is romantic plot. Rubin has built ghost story on the foundation of tender romance between Sam and Molly. Film benefits a lot from charm and vulnerability displayed by Swayze who, despite his macho look and presence, doesn’t shy away from displaying sorrow and despair. Swayze has a good chemistry with Demi Moore. Scene where Sam interrupts Molly during clay pottery session while accompanied by “Unchained Melody” by Righteous Brothers is one of the most memorable in history of early 1990s cinema as well as good example how film authors had to return to more subtle displays of erotica in the increasingly puritan world of PG-13 Hollywood. There is little opportunity for direct interaction between characters in the rest of the film, though; Demi Moore is reduced to expressing mourning while Swayze is forced to be passive observer until the late in the film, when his character learns skill of manipulating physical objects from schizophrenic ghost brilliantly played by veteran character Vincente Schiavelli.

Suspense element of the film, while being most effective, is the weakest part of the film’s formula. Crime subplot is simple and, although convincing in the context of 1980s yuppie culture, not particularly remarkable. Mystery is relatively easy to solve even for relatively inexperienced viewers. This nevertheless allows some fine performances by Rick Aviles as scary assassin in the best role of his character (actor, sadly, passed away from AIDS few years after the film), as well as Tony Goldwyn as antagonist who is both charming and evil. Goldwyn’s performance was so good that he later complained about being met with hostility by ordinary people on the street, unable to set his character from Ghost and real life personality apart.

But it is the comedy that is most effective and what makes Ghost, that would have otherwise be very dark and potentially disturbing story, into something very entertaining. Most credit should go to Whoopie Goldberg who invests and lot of energy and talent into building a character which is flawed but ultimately likeable and who goes through credible transformation from small-time criminal into something of a hero. Goldberg justifiably won Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Ghost was also nominated for Oscar for Best Picture, an honour very rare for summer blockbusters even in those, less snobbish times. The film didn’t win prestigious statue, but producers didn’t have many reasons to complain. Ghost at the box office turned into mother of all surprise hits, performing way above the wildest expectations and becoming one of the most commercially successful films in history of Hollywood at the time. A lot of that can be attributed to likeable stars, good combination of genres and subject related to universal themes of love and dealing with loss. The film is, however, far from perfect and there are many areas in which it could have been better. Soundtrack by experienced French composer Maurice Jarre is hit and miss, and works only when using elements of “Unchained Melody”. Special effects are also of varied quality and the scenes showing shadowy demons taking bad souls to Hell are poor even for the standards of its time. One of the final scenes, in which Sam possesses body of Oda in order to touch Molly, shows lack of courage, since Zucker apparently discarded idea of Goldberg and Moore sharing a love scene that can be interpreted as interracial lesbian romance. This could be attributed to conservative values of the large segments of the audience that, unlike today, Hollywood film makers and producers were afraid to attack directly. On the other hand, those same executives showed much more sense than in similar occasions where, despite film’s magnificent financial success, decided not to pursue another pointless sequel. Ghost was thus allowed to remain uncompromised in viewers’ memory and maintain its life as a film that could entertain and seduce future generations.

RATING: 7/10 (++)