Talking Movies: Ricky Gervais “Is Better Than Ghost Town”

Like many of his fans, I share the view that Ricky Gervais can do no wrong – so I was quite intrigued when I learned he was taking on the leading role in a Hollywood romantic comedy called Ghost Town.

It seemed so radically different from anything he’s done before – such a gamble. The film opens today (Friday) and Gervais is the best thing about it; nobody can quite match his unique deadpan humor.

As he told me it’s not as if he’s doing Die Hard or The Matrix. This move into new territory isn’t quite so different from what he’s been doing before, except it is odd to think of him as a “romantic” leading man.

It’s probably fair to say the big studios don’t quite know how to harness his talents – Ghost Town only partly succeeds – Gervais is better than the film itself.

But he doesn’t seem too concerned over whether or not he has a big Hollywood acting career ahead of him because, as he told me when I met him, he’s much more interested in developing his writing and directing.