We Have a Ghost

This is two movies. Or maybe even three. For the first half, there is this nice, clever, interesting story about a family that is having some issues, and the ghost that highlights the problems they need to fix. The acting and writing is clever, the direction is smart, and while I don’t know that this would ever be up to the director’s previous work (the two Happy Death Day movies and Freaky), it’s a good family horror-comedy. And then there’s the second half, when it also crams in a story about a secret paranormal department of the CIA wanting to capture a ghost for reasons, and the mystery of the titular ghost being a ghost. Oh, and a fugitive road trip. These storylines drop like a guillotine blade around the one hour mark, and the separation between hour one and hour two could not be more distinct. The first half is breezy and fun. The second half buckles under its own weight as it has to juggle a bunch of balls, and it absolutely cannot. Storylines get stalled out until there’s room to wedge them in, and there are HUGE gaps in the narrative that will make any viewer ask logical questions the movie has no answer for. The answer, really, is that the movie has to depend on what Roger Ebert called the Idiot Plot; as in, the plot only works if everybody becomes an idiot. There are so many moments where the problem could be solved with logical thought, but the movie can’t movie, so everybody swallows some stupid tablets, and it is so frustrating to see after the first half was as good as it was. That isn’t to say this is a bad movie. It’s still a watchable movie with middle-aged kids (8 and older, I’d say), and adults will have fun with it too. Everybody is fun in this, and somehow, David Harbour manages to use his undeniable charisma even though he has only one line. Really, this is probably a 4/5. But after three absolutely awesome movies by the director, I’m just a little let down this was off the mark he’d set, so I’m probably grading it a little tough.