With other projects since this role, Gervais has returned recently to a theme that tackles life after death. The irony is of course that atheist Ricky Gervais is perfect for this heavenly role that focuses on the after-life head on. As we watch Pincus evolve into a better human being, Gervais showcases his knack for making audiences laugh as easily as cry. Director David Koepp (a popular screenwriter of modern classics like Jurassic Park) co-wrote this with John Kamps. We are unusually comfortable with the topic. Irish are known for embracing death, sometimes through poetry and song or via dark humor, as a celebration of life. There’s a joke amongst my Irish rooted family that we look at death differently. I can’t help but think that Ricky Gervais is secretly Irish. He learns the life lesson in the beauty of unselfishly helping others. As we watch Bertram fall for Gwen, we see him embrace kindness and shed his lack of humanity. This film is essentially a formula romcom, but with a ghostly twist.
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Selfishly, he asks Bertram to get close to Gwen to help thwart her moving on, while threatening to have a multitude of ghosts all over NYC pester him if he doesn’t comply. Gwen is grieving the recent loss of her husband (Greg Kinnear as Frank) but her true nature is energetically bubbling with life.įrank is a sleazeball of a husband/ghost who cheated on his wife when he was alive and feels threatened now that his wife is potentially getting serious with a new man (Billy Campbell as Richard). It was like a terrorist attack down there in the darkness and the chaos, the running and the screaming, okay?”īertram Pincus: “Gross invasion of my privacy, this.”īertram hates people, dead or alive, so this poses an issue when he meets his neighbor Gwen (Tea Leoni), who is the polar opposite. Hospital Nurse: “Sir, what I’m asking is if you were…”īertram Pincus: “I shat. Hospital Nurse: “Did you evacuate your bowls?”īertram Pincus: “I drank copious amounts of drain-cleaning fluid. Hospital Nurse: “Did you drink the laxative solution?” Hospital Nurse: “When was the last time you ate?”īertram Pincus: “A pertinent question at last.
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I’m not answering any more of these, really.” Hospital Nurse: “Are you allergic to sticking plaster?”īertram Pincus: “What a ludicrous question. Marital status?”īertram Pincus: “I’m not going to be eating here.” Hospital Nurse: “Well, they want to know.”īertram Pincus: “Well, I’m sure “they” want to know a lot of things, but I don’t want my intimate details auctioned off to the highest bidder, willy-nilly.” Hospital Nurse: “Number of alcoholic beverages consumed per week?”īertram Pincus: “Why do you need to know that?” Weight?”īertram Pincus: “Last night or this morning?”īertram Pincus: “Hundred eighty-two pounds.” Hospital Nurse: “What day were you born?”īertram Pincus: “No, I understood the question. Pincus’s typical difficulty in being ‘sociable’ with others, as he answers the pre-colonoscopy questionnaire: Turns out, Bertram discovers he was dead for seven minutes during the procedure and this has left him in a unique position where he is the only one who can see and chat with the dead. He goes through a life-altering experience when he comes out of a colonoscopy seeing ghosts.
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He’s the sort that will go out of his way to avoid social pleasantries to a dishonest and unkind effort. In David Koepp’s GHOST TOWN (2008), Ricky is perfectly cast as the anti-social, easily annoyed, and cynical dentist Bertram Pincus. On his comedy styling, he never holds back and everyone is equally vulnerable to his verbal barbs.įor a man who has very firm beliefs on the after-life (lack thereof in his case), Gervais has taken on the subject more than once in his career. Brit funny man Ricky Gervais is known for his brutal humor, as the controversial host of the Golden Globes, as the creator/writer/star of the original (2001 British version) “The Office,” and for his outspoken stances on atheism and animal rights.