Incredibly inconsistent but Goldberg is wonderful and it's utterly life-affirming.

Rating: 7/10 (6 September 2013)

Ghost is a strange one. Certainly something special for the novelty. It's perhaps the most inconsistent film I've ever seen. Some parts brilliant, some parts ludicrous. Poor execution or poor idea? I can't tell. According to Bruce Joel Robin, back in 1990, he was told Ghost was the best screenplay ever written in Hollywood. It was even awarded the Oscar. It doesn't receive that much acclaim nowadays, Pulp Fiction must've blown it out of the water and Hollywood begged for forgiveness from Casablanca. It now stands quite oddly, part dated (though I can forgive misguided special effects) and part beyond its time. It's like Michael Jackson's Thriller. A deliberately mixed bag with something for everyone. In Ghost, every character is perceived in tone and style through a different genre. There's romance, comedy, crime thriller, murder mystery and even a touch of horror. Unfortunately, this makes it wildly erratic.
In fact, while its first few punchy moments showed promise, it's first half hour is an utter lame bore. There's a few setups that are intelligent in hindsight, but Patrick Swayze's poor acting betrays the material. Unconvincing isn't even the word. He's absolutely laughable, his reactions to things are pure parody. Its iconic moments feel ridiculous in context. The film doesn't start to get bearable until Whoopi Goldberg's appearance. She's surprisingly delightful, I always kinda doubted whether she deserves her acclaim, but she certainly does. Her addition gives the film an incredibly fascinating and entertaining dynamic. Makes it a much richer and immersive film. She always earned belly laughs with every joke. And the twists and turns keep coming at a Shakespearean rate with the amount of betrayal. Despite Swayze's acting, the emotion of the film works and its metaphysical ideas of life after death are easy to connect to and it ends wonderfully life-affirming.
However, while its admirably ambitious to try and display different characters through different genres and weave between them, it does mean we get immersed in one side of the story story and have that dissatisfying feeling of being disconnected from others in the film. Then leave that character we were immersed in and that's dissatisfying. I'm not sure why it doesn't work emotionally as it's a pretty great idea from Rubin and Zucker. I can't help but wonder what this story would be like as a play. There were many times when I really wanted to break away from the camera's limited perspective and look at a different character. The stage would allow that freedom and it would be a richer experience. Though they'd have to figure out how to do the passing-through-objects convincingly. I know there's a musical but it's sentimental enough already. Regardless, this film was a huge success. Maybe we can call Ghost the most commercial script ever written instead.
7/10