‘We Have a Ghost’ Review: An Overlong and Simple Family Film
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Back in the 1980s and 1990s, movies used to be simpler. It was the consequence of being a simpler time for entertainment. Movies were the king of the industry. Television was a distant, less cool cousin, and video games were barely taken into account. In those decades, movies were straight to the point. There wasn’t the need to try to give value to a movie by offering more minutes in its runtime. We Have a Ghost, the new Netflix movie of the week, sits right in the middle of being a movie from decades past and falling into the excesses of today’s movie environment.
Christopher Landon directs the film, and David Harbour, Anthony Mackie, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Tig Notaro, and Isabella Russo star in it. The film tells the story of Kevin, a young man who is deeply unhappy. He has no friends, and his father keeps moving the family around, so he never has the opportunity to maintain friendships or relationships of any kind. Kevin’s life sucks until he meets Ernest, a ghost that lives in the new house’s attic. When the existence of Earnest comes to light, Kevin will have to go against his family to save his new friend.
We Have a Ghost feels like a movie that could have been made in the 1980s. The concept is quite simple, and the visual effects were up to par with what the movie tries to do. The film definitely fits in the genre of family cinema. This is a movie that everyone can see, and even when some moments could be a bit too much for little kids, there is nothing really violent or offensive in it. This might be its biggest strength, as almost everyone can watch the movie. However, it is also its biggest weakness.
Why? Because the film is scared of taking any risk when it comes to its visual design and narrative. Everything feels too generic, and the movie also becomes quite forgettable. We have seen this story told before in better ways. Beetlejuice could be the closest comparison. That movie made Tim Burton one of his time’s most exciting and interesting filmmakers. Here, We Have a Ghost feels like a diluted version of Beetlejuice. A movie that only takes the concept of a ghost in your new house but does nothing with it.
If taking no risk feels like a problem, then the pacing is just a glaring flaw. The movie’s pacing is glacial, which is a big concern for a movie that should be fun and snappy. We Have a Ghost runs for two hours, and as the second act begins, it makes you feel that this is the moment when the movie should have started. Instead, at that point, we were 30 minutes into a story that felt very boring. The second act also has tons of issues. Many scenes feel pointless, and an entire governmental subplot has no point at all in the movie.
At this point, this script should have had at least a couple more passes. It is just so important to know what kind of story you tell in a movie; all movies should be as efficient as they can in telling their stories, including those that try to be avant-garde. We Have a Ghost is not avant-garde. It is a simple family movie, but instead of being straight to the point, it meanders with pointless conversations and even tries to slip a couple of punches when it comes to social commentary here and there. All of it is pointless.
Tig Notaro’s character is also wasted. Her entire subplot could not have existed, and the movie would still be fine. In these cases, you can see that few people read the script or were not clever enough to point out that some things dragged the story down. The movie could have fused this subplot’s intent with other elements present in the film to make it more efficient.
On top of that, the story also forces the performers to do very strange things. Mackie is doing the same things he is famous for. Mackie is a great actor, and he has nothing to prove on that side, but here he is, just playing a stock character that doesn’t feel very fun to watch. Winston takes the worst of all because he plays the film’s main character, which is incredibly unlikable. It is very hard to sympathize with his character because his attitude is so bad, even with people trying to be friends with him.
Ultimately, We Have a Ghost fails as an entertaining film. It drags its plot a bit too much in the direction of pointlessness, and what is left is just a number of scenes that try to be funny, but a bad execution degrades their impact. It is a shame because the premise has potential. A much tighter and more focused story could have been a really fun time. David Harbour and Anthony Mackie should be doing better stuff than these disappointing Netflix originals.
