I’m not
sure I’ve ever been so relieved to
love a movie. I’ve been following the
news on the rampant hate surrounding this film for the past year, and I badly
wanted it to be amazing – because the idea seemed fun and cool, yes, but also
because a) I know how Hollywood works, and one poorly-received female-driven
movie can poison the well in producers’ already-limited views, and b) it would
be such a satisfying answer to the misogynists who’ve been dumping on it sight
unseen. The trailer for the movie seemed
so-so at best, and I had my fingers crossed that it was a film whose humor
works best in context (after all, there lots of successful, well-reviewed
comedies whose trailers didn’t appeal to me in the slight.) Well, I saw the film opening night, and for
me, anyway, it was fantastic.
Erin, a
physics professor on the verge of getting tenure, is horrified when an old
professional embarrassment – a scientific book on ghosts that she wrote years
ago with Abby, her former best friend and colleague – turns up online. Scared that the book resurfacing will tank
her career, she goes to confront Abby about it but gets swept up in Abby and
new partner Holtzmann’s ghost-hunting research.
The three women get honest-to-god evidence of ghosts’ existence and
immediately band together to further study the spectral phenomenon. They’re soon joined by Patty, an MTA worker
who’s had her own brush with the supernatural, and with the “aid” of their
handsome-but-dopey receptionist Kevin, the fledgling Ghostbusters investigate
the sharp rise in apparitional activity in New York City.
What
can I say? Fast, funny, some decent
comic-horror scares. Fun dialogue, great
interplay between characters, cool gadgets, and terrific acting. The film finds a good balance between action
comedy, horror comedy, and straight-up silliness, with a few more serious
character moments woven in just often enough.
The effects, for the most part, look good, although the real-world
production design – the uniforms, the car, and the high-tech ghostbusting
equipment – generally looks way cooler than the CGI. The story lays good groundwork for the
(hopeful) franchise. Some of the
specific plot elements are a little rough in execution, but the major
characters and the dynamic between them is introduced beautifully. I also like that, for the most part, it’s
about “Ghostbusters who are women” rather than “lady Ghostbusters.” Although portions of the outside world
vehemently disagree, within the movie itself, it’s not a big deal that these
characters are women; they just are.
All the
main actors are excellent. Kristen Wiig
and Melissa McCarthy, both playing surprisingly subtle, bring smarts, heart,
and laughs to Erin and Abby, and Leslie Jones is great as Patty, who’s both
enthused and freaked out about her career change (her work here is more varied
than I’ve seen from her on SNL, and I
like it a lot.) MVP, though, is Kate
McKinnon’s Holtzmann, the wonderfully-weird techie with a passion for tinkering
and a penchant for letting her freak flag fly.
As much as I enjoy all four characters, she’s the number-one scene stealer,
with Chris Hemsworth as the goofy, oblivious Kevin coming in second.
Warnings
Scary
moments for kids, suggestive humor, a little drinking, language, and gross-out
humor.
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