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GHOST TOWN Given the dearth of quality romantic comedies produced by the major studios – these days, it's up to the independent outfits to provide them – it's a pleasant surprise to discover that Ghost Town manages to buck the odds. Certainly, the high-concept storyline makes it sound rather dreary: Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais), a dour dentist who avoids interacting with people at all costs, suddenly finds himself surrounded by dead people. That's because he himself died for seven minutes while undergoing a routine colonoscopy, and this established an open line of communication with restless ghosts still hovering around Manhattan. Chief among them is Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), who demands that Bertram prevent his widow Gwen (Tea Leoni) from marrying a human rights lawyer (Billy Campbell). Ghost Town is given a significant boost by the presence of Gervais, whose caustic wit and no-nonsense demeanor provide the picture with more of an edge than it would have received with a more conventional leading man at the helm. But the picture surprises in other ways as well, thanks to unexpected tweaks in the script co-written by John Kamps and director David Koepp. Kinnear's ethereal hubby isn't exactly the dashing nice guy he initially seems, while the emotionally torn widow played by Leoni (who really needs to appear in more movies) isn't just a pawn to be moved around by the three men in her life but instead takes control of the situations presented before her. Charming and unassuming, Ghost Town offers enough in the way of laughs to raise anyone's spirits. ***
THE HOUSE BUNNY According to the Internet Movie Database, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has appeared as himself in over 150 movies, TV shows and video productions, including episodes of Laverne & Shirley and Sex and the City. Personally, I don't think he'll ever top his cameo in the Roman Empire segment of Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part I, but he does enjoys more screen time in The House Bunny. The 82-year-old Hef serves as a father figure of sorts to Shelley Darlingson (Anna Faris), a Playboy Bunny who lives at his legendary mansion. But right after her 27th birthday (59 in Bunny years, she's told), she's kicked out of the house, although it's not long before she finds herself with a new gig: serving as a house mother to the socially awkward girls from the Zeta Alpha Zeta sorority. Soon, she's instructing them on how to attract boys while they're teaching her how to depend on more than just her looks. This was co-written by the same women (Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith) who penned Legally Blonde, and their roots are clearly showing. This is basically an inferior version of that Reese Witherspoon hit, and it isn't even up to the standards of Amanda Bynes' similarly plotted Sydney White. But Faris, a talented comedienne, strikes the proper airhead notes, and Lutz and Smith take care to feed her some funny lines now and then. Incidentally, Hefner was 27 – the same age as Shelley in the movie – when the first issue of Playboy (featuring Marilyn Monroe as the centerfold) hit the streets. Apparently, 27 is 59 in Bunny years, but, considering the man's still-swinging ways, 82 is 27 in Hef years. **
IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS It's a great feeling, isn't it, falling in love with a movie about falling in love? That's the case with this smart, perceptive and slightly cynical film which upends the traditional romantic comedy by marinating it in the realities of the modern world. It starts off shortly before New Year's Eve, when people are desperate to find someone at the last minute so they don't have to welcome the new year alone. For failed L.A. screenwriter Wilson (Scoot McNairy), that means posting a self-deprecating singles ad on Craigslist; to his surprise, he receives a reply from a woman named Vivian (Sara Simmonds). Vivian turns out to be a real piece of work: abrasive, rude, callow, and promising to dump Wilson before sunset if he doesn't keep her entertained. But as the hours pass, both of them let down their guard and start to make a real connection. The situations and dialogue created by writer-director Alex Holdridge come across as honest rather than scripted, and his interest in fleshing out his characters extends past Wilson and Vivian and also touches Wilson's best friends (Brian Matthew McGuire and Katy Luong). All four actors do an exemplary job of making their characters sympathetic – a real challenge, in the case of Simmonds – and the movie is filmed in crisp black and white by Robert Murphy. And while we've come to expect our indie-flick soundtracks to be suitable for the occasion, the one here is a real treat, highlighted by Sybil's remake of Scorpions' power ballad "Wind of Change." Tactfully employed in the final scene as well as the end credits, it truly allows audiences to head home with a song in their heart. ***1/2
