In this our afterlife

Rating: 7/10 (29 November 2015)

So it was a cold and wet Sunday afternoon, prematurely dark outside. My wife and I had just got in from walking our dog just before the rain really started and there was no question we weren't venturing out again. I asked her what film she thinks we should watch and she says "a nice one". I flick through various selections and she stops me at "Ghost". She saw it years ago in original release but I've never seen it, so "Ghost" it was.
Turned out to be a good choice. I've always been a sucker for fantasy movies dealing with visitations from the afterlife and whatnot, going back to "Topper", "The Bishop's Wife" and of course the daddy of them all "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Ghost" unquestionably taps into all of that, with good ghosts hanging around their loved ones until they find release through redemption, ascending to the light while bad ghosts don't get to stay long, getting immediately dragged down to the nether regions by irresistible black forces. This latter turns out to be very convenient for Patrick Swayze's nice-guy Sam Wheat character when two of his enemies later die on him in hot pursuit.
Sam doesn't get to last too long in his physical form, being slain in front of his loving girlfriend, Demi Moore's Molly by what seems to be a random mugger. When Moore is later consoled by Sam's best friend and banking work-colleague Carl, the bigger picture quickly became clearer, leading to a reasonably exciting if slightly over-the-top conclusion as Sam races to save Molly from joining him in the hereafter as the bad guys come after her.
Of course, to communicate with Molly, Sam has to find a suitable conduit so enter Whoopi Goldberg's Oda Mae fake medium character and an entertaining sub-plot caper where she and Sam conspire to thwart Carl's embezzlement plans in person at the bank as well as the inevitable scenes where Goldberg first becomes aware of his at first unwelcome presence and later when she's trying to convince Moore of Sam's "existence".
Sure there are slushy bits too, like the oft-parodied (and very suggestive!) pottery scene to the backdrop of The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody", making the film a woman's favourite ever since, but that may be as much to do with big old handsome Patrick as anything else. Undoubtedly though he and Moore are two of the beautiful people, living the life in downtown New York, but they combine well and have you rooting for them all the way through. Goldberg gets to do her goofy, sometimes histrionic comedy thing but she's kept just about in check by the direction. The special effects, for the time, are fine, particularly all the out-of-body stuff.
Such was the success of the movie on original release that "Unchained Melody" was re- released as a single in the UK due to the popularity of this film and raced to number 1 in the charts (which it never did on original issue) but I can see why. It's a warming, life- affirming entertaining movie and good clean family entertainment, an old-fashioned Hoolywood movie in the best tradition - and what's wrong with that, as someone once said?