A Matter of Love and Death ...

Rating: 8/10 (13 January 2013)

No matter how prepared we get for corniness, we rapidly find ourselves absorbed by the romance between Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze and much more by the depiction of death strangely plausible and, no pun intended, quite haunting.
Indeed, the main premise of "Ghost", which won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, is to feature death from the dead's perspective. Not a revolutionary plot device but the only one that occupies the whole story with the ghost trying to reach the living. Why wouldn't Sam try to talk to his parents, his friends, why would Molly, all of sudden, become the center of his afterlife? The script tactfully escapes from this criticism when it's clearly established that Sam's death is not accidental, and the cause of his murder incidentally puts Molly in a dangerous situation.
I also want to answer one criticism expressed by Roger Ebert, why would a ghost still care about Earthly matters, why wouldn't follow the white light and go have a chat with either "Elvis of Aristotles"? I think that the most important feeling channeled by Swayze's performance is disbelief. He can't get the idea of not belonging to this world anymore, and this is why I felt that the portrayal of death, as a separation between the soul and the body, and the atrocious witnessing of one's death, was 'plausible', I could imagine myself dying this way. It's even ironic how Sam goes through the stages of grief for his own death, from denial to resignation.
And it's extraordinary how Swayze perfectly captures the desperateness of a man who had so much to do, so many dreams and projects and finally saw his life abruptly cut. His penetrating expressions are astonishingly convincing, whether it's for sadness, empathy, compassion, his eyes are more eloquent than any of his lines. And his performance is crucial since he's portraying an isolated character. As soon as he becomes a ghost, he only interacts with a few other ghosts, even Whoopi Goldberg who plays the medium Oda Mae, can only hear him. Swayze's believability relies on his ability to touch the viewers instead of the characters, definitely the most defining performance of an actor who sadly left us too soon.
And Sam's exhaustive journey, starts with his necessity to deal with his new condition, in order to stop the scheme that lead to his death. And the learning part renovates all the good old archetypes of the ghost crossing doors and touching objects. Ghosts can feel sensations and only touch or move things if they're able to think themselves as ghosts, it's an exciting part of the film to see a man learning his powers to be able to use them as weapons. In conclusion, Sam stays because he can't believe he dies and he tries to reach Molly because she's in danger. We're far from the whole 'unfinished job' and 'transcending love' clichés, the film delivers something original out of familiar material.
The film also innovates with the scary portrayal of the bad guys' deaths. The atrocious sight of moaning evil shadows converging to take someone away justifies the belief in a sort of immanent justice, and the exhilarating idea that we all die twice, the good people going to heaven, and the others in some place, we don't want to know. The villains' demises is very unsettling, it can even traumatize some sensitive minds, and you see in Swayze's eyes that he feels sorry for them, for even death don't make people even. But "Ghost"'s thrilling metaphysical value also originates the magnificent ending which is probably the closest depiction to heaven ever gracing the screen.
And there's another cliché that the film tactfully reinvents, the 'Old Magic Negro', and it succeeds for two reasons. First, Oda Mae is a crook, she's not a real medium, which is funny and she discovers that she really has the power, which is even funnier. Secondly, it's Whoopi Goldberg and it's one of her greatest roles, earning her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and beyond the comic relief aspect, this is exactly what a supporting performance is supposed to be: secondary, yet so scene-stealing that we can't imagine the film without it. Goldberg provides all the laughs, capable of the most acid irony with Swayze, and being comprehensive and diplomatic, in her streetwise way, with Molly.
This is a credit to Jerry Zucker, who didn't forget his comedic roots and made a few hilarious moments of the film. My only regret and this time, I share Ebert's view, I wish he had the guts to portray the second kissing scene with Whoopi Goldberg. No matter how weird it would have looked, it would have touched a very sensitive nerve and be even sadder because we would still get the idea that the sweet and tender Molly can't see Sam since he entered Oda Mae's body and it would have made the final scene even more rewarding. And I can't go on without mentioning the sweet and sensitive performance of Demi Moore as the fragile Molly, unbelievably cute with that short haircut, that became one of the film's trademarks along with Swayze's red shirt and Oda Mae's exaggerated dress.
Even though Jerry Zucker, the co-director of so many spoof classics, can seem as unlikely choice to direct a drama like "Ghost" but with all the material he had, the script, the casting, the visual effects, a magnificent score from Maurice Jarre, all he had to do is to assemble all these elements of greatness in a straight-forward way, without overdoing anything. And the film had the cinematic quality of successful movies; this capability to be memorable in a genuine and creative way, the unavoidable iconic pottery scene with "Unchained Melody" probably earned the film its ticket for immortality.
Not to mention the powerful ending, which, after the death of Patrick Swayze, had the bittersweet feeling of a sad premonition.