GENRE: Some people bill this as a comedy? That’s ridiculous. It’s a Drama.
PREMISE: On a date with his girlfriend Molly, Sam Wheat is murdered by a thug who is actually working together with Sam’s friend, Carl, to obtain money from a bank account where Sam works. Sam becomes a ghost and is not seen by most folks. He tries to warn Molly about Carl, but she refuses to listen. So Sam relies on a psychic, Oda Mae Brown, to try and save Molly’s life.
ABOUT: Before Stuart Little 2, there was a time when Bruce Joel Rubin was a very hot commodity. Heck, his films Jacob’s Ladder and Ghost were filmed simultaneously in New York. Even though, Ghost had been in development for years. Allegedly, Hollywood had a stigma against ghost films. They didn’t do great numbers, and as a result it was trouble getting one produced. Many actors (Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, etc.) turned down the role of Sam because it wasn’t a deep one. And Ghost had a series of oddball directors attached like Milos Foreman who wanted to change the ending of "Ghost" so that the heroine would jump out of a window to commit suicide to join her dead boyfriend in the hereafter. (Eventually the project was directed by Jerry Zucker, who had done the spoof Airplane). It is a small intimate film that took time to get made, and Rubin already had a few small credits to help push the project along.
WRITERS: Bruce Joel Rubin (Jacob’s Ladder, My Life)
I’ve never seen the first few minutes of this film, but have seen everything else. And it’s hard for me to get behind because the film feels so dated now and I don’t really like Demi Moore as an actress. There’s something very off putting about her. But, the ending is always strong. And when Carl is killed and dragged to hell by demons, it’s definitely a creepy. So it was a good chance to study Ghost as a story removed from the film. And while there are definitely problems here (many of them: implausible plot turns, a flat underdeveloped central character, bad guys I don’t understand, an unchallenged relationship between Sam and Molly), there’s a definite core of something strong here.
There’s several twists in this story that could never happen today. Oda Mae manages to infiltrate a security system by just being nice and personal, which would be impossible to do noawadays. But even larger then that, Sam Wheat doesn’t have a transformation. He’s the same person all along and really isn’t all that transformed by the ending of the film. (It’s funny Rubin would go on to write My Life next, which has a great character progression). So Sam plays very long and very flat. And as a result, I don’t know if I liked or enjoyed him as a character. Although, I paid attention to him because it was interesting to see a ghost aware he’s a ghost moving around in a living world. And the bad guys who chase Sam are completely confusing. I’m not sure why they killed Sam. I’m not sure how they’re making money. I guess it involves a wire transfer, but besides that it’s pretty goofy. And Sam and Molly have this weird relationship where their love isn’t awe inspiring and it isn’t awful. It’s just an ordinary romance, which is blah.
I read a synopsis of the film, and it was interesting to note where a couple story revisions were made which seem to revise some of these problems: the bad guys are a little bit more unified, Carl holds Molly hostage at the end and challenges Sam (which I guess adds tension, but just sounds goofy), at the start of the film Sam won’t tell Molly he loves her which makes Sam’s ghostliness all the more moving. I think, the largest problem that remains throughout this thing is Molly is flat, Sam is flat, and their romance is flat so they don’t come off as very vivid characters.
So I think the story is awesome. Definite high concept. Has classic written all over it. But, I can’t help but feel Bruce Joel Rubin was trying to fit all these characters into the story he’d already written in his mind rather than vice versa so he ended up trying to force characters into the plot and some came off flat. Besides, these slip ups, I like Ghost.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
[X] - Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)
DAILY TIP: It’s not what a character says, it’s what they do. Oda Mae is always talking about how much she dislikes Sam, but we all know they’re actually friends because they continue to stick around and help one another. Although this tension provides a good deal of tension throughout the script, the conflict between Oda Mae and Sam is particularly awesome at the end when we realize these two characters in fact really have loved and respected one another all along.
ISLA PROSPECT: It’s hard with classic films to picture anybody outside of the actors who originally portrayed the roles. Also, I think this would be a hard role for Isla because there aren’t that many comedic chances, but rather Ghost is a straight up drama.
LINK: IMSDB has an early draft, but I read one a bit earlier than that.
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