4:00 P.M. E! has already started their Golden Globe coverage, so I guess it’s time for me to begin as well! Time for the best of Hollywood (and television) to come out and get rewarded (or robbed). Predictions will slowly trickle in as the stars grace the red carpet, but I’ll be writing from the arrivals to the awards to Ricky Gervais’ harsh quips. With recaps, opinions, and insights, make “Marshall and the Movies” your companion for the Golden Globes!
8 for 10 on my Golden Globes predictions, not too shabby! (Darned Mila Kunis and Jake Gyllenhaal for blowing my perfect 10.)
It was a nice night (as is any with Natalie Portman at the podium), but a lot of people had issues with Ricky Gervais. For what it’s worth, I thought he did a great job – no more offensive than last year. He took shots at people who needed to be proven vulnerable, like the HFPA, Charlie Sheen, the lauded cast of “Sex and the City,” and “The Tourist.”
Except for perhaps his introductions of Tim Allen and Robert Downey Jr., every joke was in fairly good taste. They weren’t just potshots; they made you think about why we care so much about certain institutions and celebrities. It’s at this point in the factoid where I’ll refer you to “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” a documentary about the fantastic comedienne that makes many profound observations about the nature of good comedy.
I’m not expecting something as crude from Franco and Hathaway in a month, but I’m hoping for at least as good of a show.
The “F.I.L.M.” (First-Class, Independent Little-Known Movie) of this week does not precisely fit its billing. It is not independent (in fact, it’s a studio movie), but unfortunately it is little-known. Released just last September, “Ghost Town” is one of 2008’s hidden jewels. It is a witty and wry comedy with a simple yet fantastical premise. While undergoing a surgical procedure, Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) dies for seven minutes. He walks out of the operation with a strange side effect – he can see and communicate with the souls of the dead. While our natural inclination as skeptical moviegoers is to assume that we know the plot just by hearing the premise, “Ghost Town” defies the clichés. The result is a sentimental movie that tickles the funny bone but warms the heart (and potentially rupturing the tear ducts).
As mentioned earlier, Pincus is unwillingly able to talk to dead people. One such soul, Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), takes a special interest in Pincus. Frank wants to use Pincus to tie up some loose ends from his former life. His widow, the gorgeous paleontologist Gwen (Tea Leoni), is engaged to a man who doesn’t deserve her. However, the misanthropic Pincus is hardly an ideal wooer, and it will take all that is in him to unleash something resembling charm. As he grows to know Gwen, patches of sensitivity are revealed beneath his Scrooge-like coating. But even more unexpectedly, through the ghost that follow him and bark demands incessantly, Pincus begins to discover what a tremendous impact his life could have on everyone around him.
I love a movie with a message, yet it is nearly impossible to find one that has good values without being overly preachy. “Ghost Town” strikes just the right cord, pushing its message but not getting in your face with it. The lessons that Pincus learns are applicable to our everyday lives, and they can be summed up in a quote from Albert Einstein: “Only a life lived for others is worth living.”
I implore you to give “Ghost Town” a view sometime soon. It plays all the time on HBO, so there’s no reason not to watch; resist the temptation to watch some other mindless movie. If you want some light entertainment with a soul, this is your movie.
Marshall and the Movies 
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