Clever, charming, totally in command of some weird material...

Rating: 7/10 (4 November 2006)

Whether or not we believe that in the afterlife we're all very much concerned with unfinished business and can simply contact a medium when we want to get in touch with the physical world, GHOST is a complete charmer from beginning to end.
It all starts when a couple of yuppies (PATRICK SWAYZE and DEMI MOORE) are strolling back to their luxurious apartment one night. He's an investment counselor and his digs are something to kill for. However, that's not the reason he's murdered by thugs in an alley. Seems he's been on to a laundering scheme by some black market investors and it's a contract killing.
Well, you can't keep a good man down and soon Swayze is interacting, at first in minor ways, with the living but is frustrated enough in trying to reach his wife so that he contacts WHOOPI GOLDBERG, a fake medium who has no idea that she is indeed able to hear words from Swayze until he starts prompting her and giving her information about him that only he and his wife know in order to convince Moore to pay attention to him. As one of the bad men involved in the investment scheme, TOM GOLDWYN gives a funny, terrific performance in a key supporting role. Much of the humor comes from his work and, of course, Whoopi, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her insolent supporting role, as well as a Golden Globe.
Whatever, it all works even though it seems highly preposterous when you stop to think about it. But the lines are so clever, the interaction between ghosts and real people so inventive, and the climax so satisfying that you can't help admiring how the screenwriters were able to take a very difficult subject and turn it into one of the smartest comedy/drama achievements of the year.
Summing up: Highly recommended for some good chills and lots of laughs.