Ghost - Espírito do Amor

There`s a part of me that has been around since I was a kid, a part that asks, "But what will the police say when they show up?" As a kid, the answer in my head was some sort of handwave, saying they`d just somehow Understand. As an adult, though, the whole scenario plays out: "Why is this known con artist here? Uh uh. Dead boyfriend, huh? And how did he die? And he did what? With whom? Ma`am, I think you need to come down to the station with us." "Molly, it just doesn`t look good for you," her lawyer says, later. "Oda Mae sold you out. She told them everything. The check. The scam. The embezzling. Your husband`s wallet. Everything."

This ending would be much better than the drawn out nonsense we had to sit through, and also, it would suit the film`s relentless tone-jumping. Is this a romance, a thriller, a gory horror film, a comedy, a Bangsian fantasy? No one, from the writer to the director to the stars to the editor to the key grips have any idea, really. It`s actually a very light film, the sort of fluffy actually kinda fun thing that plays with its premise and sees how it works with the world around it. It`s very unexpected, and very corny. It also demands that the viewer actively shutdown to appreciate it, and the test of its merit is how well it manages to make you not ask yourself "if ghosts can do this why doesn`t everyone believe in them? Because there are obvs a lot of them, and I mean, why wouldn`t they be throwing shit around all the time?" For me, it clearly failed to keep me from asking this, but you might have better luck.

Also, obligatory: every person of color with any significant screen time is a criminal. Representation! At least Whoopi plays a good guy. Speaking of people who deserved better, Demi Moore deserved better than this, and basically better than her entire career, as well. Also also, please do not pronounce the long e and the end of Swayze. From now on, please call him "swayz."

But yes, the reversal when swayz finally haunts the fuck out of his betrayer, where you root for the creepy ghost instead of the fella being haunted? That`s the sort of fun toying with the idea that I didn`t know I wanted from this, the sort of thing I`d`ve complained about not getting if it weren`t there, so I have to begrudgingly admire this. This is an actual ghost story, not a story that just throws a ghost in there for a little flavor. Also, hey, it`s a surprisingly well constructed story. Every little gun on the mantle in the first act seems to go off by the end, from the swinging statue to "Ditto." And I expected the iconic Righteous Brothers pottery moment to be when he was a ghost, and it`s totally not. I just don`t even know anymore. I do love the Righteous Brothers.