‘It’s amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you…’
I’ve never really fancied Ghost before. Even as one of the highest-grossing films of my favourite cinematic decade (the ’90s) something about it has always put me off. It’s the sappiness, isn’t it? It’s Whoopi Goldberg. It’s Demi Moore’s haircut. It’s the use of ‘Unchained Melody’. It’s the fact that the film’s most iconic scene is highly centered around pottery. In reality, I enjoyed some parts of Ghost – namely the bit with Vincent Schiavelli haunting a subway car like his life depended on it. Although he’s dead so perhaps that idiom doesn’t fit here. But overall, as expected, this was a disappointing experience…
It’s interesting that when you think of Yuppie Nightmare movies, you don’t think of Ghost. But it actually fits the template nicely. We have a hotshot banker as the eponymous ghost (Patrick Swayze). We have the artistic and seemingly perfect Mary-Sue wife (Demi Moore). We have peril in the fact that Swayze’s character is offed in the first act. There are even glass bricks for chrissakes. This may technically be a ’90s movie in reality but it’s very much an ’80s movie spiritually.
Much of your enjoyment of this film will depend on how you view Whoopi Goldberg. Me? I think she’s fine as an actress but she’s never made me laugh. And she doesn’t here. Swayze delivers one of his most forgettable performances and while Moore does okay with the material she’s been given there really isn’t much to her character beyond ‘grieving wife’. This is a film for normies if we’re being honest. It’s a crowd-pleaser. It’s Coldplay for films. It’s not funny. It’s not emotionally resonant. It doesn’t have any dinosaurs or Terminators in it. It’s not for me.
Ghost comes from the same director as Airplane! (Jerry Zucker) but it has none of that film’s style or nuance – this is a film that should be resigned to the dustbin of history.
