In a sentenceA holiday romance with a ghost, interrupted by almost everyone else on the cast list
An American on holiday falls for a ghost, turning the prospect of romance into a problem with no ordinary solution. Jack Crawford (Steve Guttenberg) and Mary Plunkett (Daryl Hannah) are the central pair, with Peter Plunkett (Peter O’Toole) and Sharon Brogan Crawford (Beverly D’Angelo) caught up in the surrounding complications. Miranda (Jennifer Tilly) and Brother Tony (Peter Gallagher) also feature. The lovers try to bridge the distance between the living and the dead while other entanglements develop around them.
Peter O’Toole and an elaborate ghostly setting provide some pleasure, but Neil Jordan’s comedy cannot keep its scattered stories in order. The romance has warmth; the film keeps finding reasons to leave it alone.
Neil Jordan’s High Spirits has enough warmth and visual imagination to make its muddle frustrating, but not enough good comedy to recommend it. Neil Jordan writes and directs a supernatural farce built around the complications of an American’s romance with a ghost. There is room in that idea for both silliness and sadness, and the film occasionally finds both. Too often, though, it wanders away from the people who might make either feeling matter.
Peter O’Toole is the chief reason to persevere. As Peter Plunkett, he supplies comic conviction that the surrounding story often lacks, making its whimsy seem worth indulging for a little longer. We do not need every joke to be clever when a performer can give the foolishness this much purpose. The trouble is how readily the film leaves him for another subplot, as though the cast list were a rota.
Steve Guttenberg and Daryl Hannah also give it something worth keeping. As Jack Crawford and Mary Plunkett, they have enough rapport to make the supernatural romance more than a complication to be explained. Their attraction is the part we want the film to stay with, because it gives us a reason to care what happens beyond the next joke. The romance remains thinly written, however, and their chemistry cannot supply all the development the script leaves out.
Alex Thomson’s cinematography and Anton Furst’s production design offer a persuasive reason to keep looking even when the jokes are struggling. The elaborate physical surroundings give the ghost story substance, and its darker passages suggest a sadder film than the broad comedy generally allows. We were briefly moved by the ghostly couple’s dancing. The tenderness there works because the film stops treating the lovers chiefly as a source of comic complications and gives their unhappiness some room.
Michael Bradsell’s editing has to contend with a script that keeps adding distractions to an already slight central story. Individual scenes can be agreeable, but their accumulation does not produce much comic momentum. George Fenton’s music does not settle the competing demands of romance and farce, though that is asking a score to solve a writing problem. At 99 minutes, the film still finds time for diversions that interrupt its better scenes, with each change of emphasis asking us to begin caring again.
Supernatural comedy can accommodate a surprising amount of sadness, provided the living and the dead have clear reasons for bothering each other. Here the romantic possibilities are more convincing than the comic plotting built around them. Neil Jordan seems interested in the hurt beneath the fantasy, yet too much of the film is spent attending to comic business that does not deepen it. Admirers of Peter O’Toole may find enough pleasure to forgive the diversions. Anyone coming chiefly for a ghostly romance should expect frequent interruptions.
The reviews lean towards mixed or negative, with praise concentrated on individual performances and the physical production rather than the comedy as a whole. Peter O’Toole earns approval for his comic performance, while the chemistry between Steve Guttenberg and Daryl Hannah gives the romance some depth. The elaborate production and darker supernatural touches also find admirers. Even among the less persuaded critics, there is recognition of occasional poetry in the ghostly romance.
The main reservations concern a slender plot, scattered subplots and humour that works only intermittently. The spread runs from qualified enjoyment to outright dismissal, though none of the recorded assessments is wholly positive. Radio Times finds enough easy laughs to enjoy despite the crowded storytelling. At the harsher end, Time Out’s available assessment dismisses the film and faults its treatment of the love affair between Ireland and Hollywood.
The page could not be accessed, so the critic’s verdict cannot be established. No praised or criticized element can be identified from the available page text.
Read the full review →Jones finds the comedy manages its whimsical, easy laughs despite a slender plot. He praises Peter O’Toole’s performance but says the many scattered subplots prevent full comic satisfaction.
Read the full review →The critic finds the supernatural whimsy uneven, with its quality rising and falling from moment to moment. They praise its appealing dark underpinnings and elaborate physical production.
Read the full review →Wilmington finds the film a fragmented, overblown comedy whose flashes of poetry cannot overcome its misjudged conventions. He praises its visual splendor and the lyrical moments in the ghostly couple’s dance of death.
Read the full review →Thomas finds the film briefly entertaining but ultimately forgettable and disappointing. He singles out the chemistry between Steve Guttenberg and Daryl Hannah as giving the comedy some depth.
Read the full review →The review’s available description calls the film dreadful. It faults the film’s treatment of the love affair between Ireland and Hollywood.
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Blithe Spirit · not reviewed yetGhostly interference exposes marital grievances, with sharper comic manners and more disciplined plotting.
The Ghost and Mrs. MuirA quieter supernatural romance, with more patience for what separates its lovers.
A Chinese Ghost StoryFor supernatural romance willing to let its comedy sit beside real sorrow.
BeetlejuiceA more assured supernatural comedy that makes its elaborate surroundings earn their keep.
Extra Ordinary · not reviewed yetIrish supernatural comedy with a firmer grasp of the people beneath the paranormal fuss.
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