By Seth Lukas Hynes
Ghosted
Starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas
Rated M
3/5
Ghosted is neither thrilling as an action movie or scintillating as a romance movie.
A farmer named Cole (Chris Evans) goes on a date with a beautiful art curator named Sadie (Ana de Armas), only to get caught up in international intrigue when it turns out that Sadie is actually a secret agent.
After a sweet first date, Sadie is too ruthless and there is too much bickering friction between her and Cole for a satisfying will they, won’t they dynamic. The dialogue is very contrived, trying too hard to
sound witty, which covers everything – including Cole, who should be an earnest, likeable protagonist – with a sheen of insincerity. The plot is driven by yet another tired Macguffin (a nebulous superweapon named “Aztec”), and some jarring edits dull the tension.
Adrien Brody is wasted as Leveque, a villain with little menace or screen-time. The action sequences are unmemorable and strangely bloodless, attempting a John Wick kinetic feel but without the fluidity or good framing. A twinkling riff in Lorne Balfe’s score also sounds perplexingly like the Chocolate Room music from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.
Like Spiderhead from 2022, Ghosted does get better later, building to a fun shoot-out climax in an out-of-control revolving restaurant. However, I can’t recommend a film on the basis of a cute opening and an adequate ending.
The Gray Man (also from 2022) has much better action, characters and humour, and makes far better use of Evans and de Armas (Evans as a quippy figure works better in The Gray Man because his costars are more grounded).
A try-hard action-comedy that isn’t very funny, exciting or romantic, Ghosted is streaming exclusively on Apple TV Plus.
– Seth Lukas Hynes
