The Cinemasochist takes a look at movies that have been notoriously rejected by the mass populace, and tells you if you might perchance be missing a classic. Or not.
Ghost Dad assembles a top-notch cast, some of Hollywood’s best screenwriters, Sidney Poitier (yes, Sidney Poitier) behind the camera, and America’s greatest father figure, all in the service of a premise that is completely grotesque. I shudder to think what Hollywood executive dreamed it up and thought it was a good idea. It certainly cannot have been Cosby or Poitier, who seem far to cheerful to invent something so morose. Nor could it have been writers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, who seem to be trying to wring all they can from this unfortunate story. Whoever invented it must be a sad, lonely person who has trained himself to deal with misery by laughing at it.
The notion of Bill Cosby playing a ghost isn’t in itself so bad. One can imagine mining some comedy from Cosby getting stuck between worlds and trying to make his way around.
But, well... okay, let me put it this way. You’re one of the children in this film. Your mom passed away a few years earlier, and your dad (Bill Cosby) has been struggling to raise you and your two siblings ever since. He’s a few days away from securing a new promotion that will make things a whole lot easier. And then he shows up one afternoon and explains to you that he’s been killed in a car accident, and is now a ghost.
I know--barrel of laughs, right?
Of course, humor can always be found in the gallows, but that is not the kind of movie that Ghost Dad seems to want to be. It wants to be a silly family comedy. We’re even treated to a scene where Ghost Cosby, unable to communicate with his children, develops a goofy game of charades to explain to them that he’s a ghost. We see the children take delight in playing the guessing game, and then we see their faces drop when they figure it out.
Hold on--my sides are splitting.
So what we have is a silly comedy in which three kids are on the verge of being orphaned. The movie avoids the real gravity of the situation by progressing from set-piece to set-piece without much thought. Ghost Dad has to go on a date. Ghost Dad messes around with daughter’s stupid boyfriend. Ghost Dad needs to go get a physical. The most befuddling is the show-and-tell sequence, in which Cosby’s son gets on his case about helping him with a magic trick.
Hello? Kid, your dad is dead. Forget about the magic trick and cry or something. That the kids do not quite grasp what has happened to their father makes the movie even sadder.
The movie is competently made. Cosby is much more at home here than in the dismal Leonard Part 6. The role of a hapless father trying to keep his family together suits him quite well, and he even wrings a few funny moments out of trying to parent from beyond the grave. I must admit that I laughed at a scene in which he is forced to undergo a physical, which he manages to do quite believably (with the help of Arnold Stang--yes, Arnold Stang). The usually reliable Ian Bannen appears as a scientist named Edith, and the fact that his name is Edith is one of many jokes that the movie insists is very funny.
It should be mentioned--spoiler alert!--that the Cosby character is thankfully not really dead, and he finds a way to put himself back in his body and reunite with his family, and the movie has a happy ending. This is a relief. There is absolutely no way to accept a version of this movie where the character actually dies, and where the kids grieve for their father in a normal way. Such a movie would be tragic, and to try to make it into a comedy would be unconscionable.
Though Ghost Dad is a bit more bearable than Leonard Part 6, they share one thing in common: both are films that fall prey to a premise that is completely unworkable. There may be a way to make a movie about a dad who dies and comes back as a ghost to set things right for his children, but it would have to be somber and honest and not the fun fest that this film wants to be.
* 1/2 out of ****
Is it really that bad?: It's not completely devoid of humor.
Pain level: Fairly low, rising to intermediate whenever the young children are involved.
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