A Zucker for Love Sories

Rating: 6/10 (27 May 2005)

In 1970 we had "Love Story" remember? Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw crying and loving all the way to the bank? 1990 gave us "Ghost" love beyond death and corporate shenanigans. I saw it last night for the first time and surprise, surprise, 15 years later I do understand why people all over the world flocked to see, to devour this soufflé, again and again. Bruce Joel Rubin won an Academy Award for the screenplay, I remember Jodie Foster handing him the statuette with a smile worthy of a British diplomat. But in fact, the screenplay should have propelled the Academy to create a separate category alongside Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. Yes, Smart Ass Screenplay of the year or Most Commercial Screenplay. Jerry Zucker does a masterful job allowing Rubin's stroke of genius to unfold without major interference. Demi Moore is scrumptious and what Maurice Jarre does with her tears deserves an award of its own. Patrick Swayze suffers with a certain amount of dignity, his anger is very virile but his expressions of longing are pure Lana Turner. What makes the whole calculated enterprise worth every bit of its hype is Whoopi Goldberg. She brings the tale where it really belongs. A comedy. A ghostly comedy about enduring love.