Ghosted – Film review by Andrea Carnevali

Ghosted ⭐️ ½ – Review by Andrea Carnevali

Cole falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie, but then makes the shocking discovery that she’s a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world. Available to watch on Apple +

Once in a while all you want to do is to turn your brain off and enjoy one of those mindless popcorn movies which, even if they are not the most highbrow products in the world, are certainly a lot of fun. With their spectacular stunts, edge of your seats thrills and laugh-out-loud humour (however crass sometimes it might be), they can turn a dull evening into an exciting one if you are in the right mood for them.

Yes, they might stretch credibility and often veer towards the cheesy side of things, but when they are aware of their own limitations and are in on the joke, you are more likely to forgive all their shortcomings.

This latest comedy/romance/action from Apple+ seemed to have all the elements above to fit the bill I was looking for: a ludicrous yet fun premise (a florist falls in love with a secret CIA agents and finds himself tangled up in a dangerous game of spies); two steaming-hot stars (Chris Evans aka Captain America and Ana de Armas, whose pedigree in blockbusters is pretty complete: she has appeared on the latest Bond, as well as Blade Runner 2049 and Knives Out), an over the top baddie, with an even more over the top accent (Adrien Brody) and a budget which looked high enough to at least ensure some spectacular set pieces.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well apparently quite a lot!

For a start Ghosted is mostly predictable, uninspiring and crucially, unfunny. And since the film seems to rely a lot on that rather than the sporadic (and rather unexciting) action set pieces, you can easily see how the whole thing began to fall flat pretty soon.

De Armas might be an appealing presence and she was certainly good in some of her previous outings (she recently starred in Blonde, the Neflix film on Marylin which divided the critics, but in which she was undoubtedly very good), however her comedic timing is not one of her strong assets. On top of that, her pairing with Chris Evans, hardly produces any spark.

In fact, despite constant references to the sexual tension between the two characters (a recurrent joke in the film is people telling them to “get a room”), what’s striking about Ghosted, and what ultimately really drags it down to the bottom of the pit, is the complete lack of any chemistry between the two leads.  There is a stark disconnect between the lines they are both reading off the script and actually getting any feeling out of those lines.

Hard to tell whether a slightly more inspired script could have served them better, but I actually blame a lot of that on the flat and rather pedestrian direction by Dexter Fletcher. A child star from classics like The Long Goodbye (1979) and The Elephant Man (1980), Dexter more recently turned director for films like Eddie the Eagle (2016) and Rocketman (2019), both of which were perfectly watchable, even if not masterpieces, but here he seems to be sleepwalking through the motions.

Even in the scenes where he could let his two stars free and let some improvisation lift his material, he seems to be cornered into generic reversed shots filmed with bland dialogue, making everything feel even more pedestrian.

Characters are often given lines to read but not a lot to do while speaking.

Even those few action scenes which on paper might have looked mildly interesting end up being over-edited to the notes of random catchy tunes and feel banal, by-the-number, and eventually very forgettable. I saw Ghosted three days ago and I can hardly remember any of those scenes (yes, I know, I watch a lot of films, but that’s no excuse).

There is one exception, which is probably why I’m giving this one and a half stars instead of just one: the final fight on a revolving restaurant on top of a tower, is at least original and well crafted. Sadly this comes more than an hour and a half into the film and by that time I had already clocked off (and I suspect most of the audience would have too), so despite the fun cameos and my willingness to be swept by some mindless action, this was a real turn off for me.