Curtain Call (1998)
A bachelor afraid of marriage angers his long-time girlfriend by buying a splendid townhouse just for himself, only to find it haunted by the ghosts of a famous theatrical couple, who teach him about love and commitment.
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This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place
Stylish but barely mediocre overall
How sad is this?
Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.
The executive Stevenson Lowe (James Spader) moves to New York to work in the publishing house that has belonged to his family for generations. He buys an old townhouse to live alone, disappointing his girlfriend Julia (Polly Walker) that believed they would move in together. Soon he discovers that the house is haunted by two amicable ghosts, the former theater stars from the 20's Max Gale (Michael Caine) and Lily Marlowe (Maggie Smith). Further, they are married and argue most of the time. Meanwhile, Senator Will Dodge (Sam Shepard) woos Julia and she breaks up with Stevenson. His professional and private life turns upside-down, since the publishing house decides to accept to publish commercial and shallow books; his former lover Michelle Tippet (Marcia Gay Harden) hits on him; Julia travels to Washington to meet the Senator; and the two ghosts quarrels all the time. But he learns how much he loves Julia. Will he succeed to have she back?"Curtain Call" is a delightful romantic comedy, one of those films that is pleasant to see more than once. The wonderful cast with James Spader, Polly Walker, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Sam Shepard and Marcia Gay Harden has a perfect chemistry and seems to have fun while performing their characters. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Adoráveis Fantasmas" ("Lovely Ghosts")
A delightful light comedy in the "Why am I the only seeing these ghosts" genre. James Spader plays a publisher only remotely in contact with this life, until he moves into the house of two Broadway ghosts (Smith and Caine). With the dubious help of this quarrelsome couple who carried their stage personae into their private lives and then into their deaths, Spader works out not only his own problems, but those of the ghosts as well.
It's funny that these sort of films used to be the mainstream back in the 30s and 40s. Now they're the "small" films. First of all, I can't believe they got this cast together.Even the smallest parts have great people in them. And the camera loves few women like it loves Polly Walker. This is a film for adults. Spader's character is a book editor and the film concerns how to keep love going as you get older. Geez, no wonder it's not mainstream.
I am a James Spader fan, and based on his being in this film, along with Michael Caine, I went ahead and rented it. Unfortunately, the movie was so lame that I gave up on it half way through.Spader's acting suggested he had his mind on other things the entire time he was on screen. And the pacing and editing almost seemed random with very little driving the narrative.As I watched this tripe, I thought of the expression that "nature abhors a vacuum"...well I believe nature would abhor this as well, since a vacuum and this movie both suck.