A 2008 film starring
Ricky Gervais.
After suffering a near death experience during routine surgery, where he was technically dead for 7 minutes,
a bit less, misanthropic dentist Bertram Pincus (Gervais) begins seeing the ghosts of people who died with unfinished business. When the ghosts realize that Pincus can see them, they begin following him around, asking for his help in crossing over. He, of course, does his best to ignore them all, but one ghost in particular finally get's his attention: Frank (Greg Kinnear), who believes that if he can get Pincus to prevent his widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni) from marrying a new guy that is completely wrong for her, he can finally cross over.
The film contains examples of the following Tropes:
- Back from the Dead: Luckily for Pincus, he doesn't have to stay a ghost for long
- The Beatles: "I'm Looking Through You" plays over the opening title sequence; this is a rare use of an original Beatle song in a film soundtrack as opposed to a cover version.
- Big Applesauce
- Depraved Dentist: While certainly not the worst kind, Pincus wasn't winning any awards.
- Hilarious Outtakes: It's Ricky Gervais. That is all.
- Oh, and there's bouncing dog shit.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The reason that Frank finally gets to leave
- Jacob Marley Apparel: The ghosts can't change their clothes from what they died in.
- Jerkass: Pincus originally embodies this trope, before showing his true colors as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Love Triangle: A somewhat strange example, considering one of the three is dead.
- Also technically a "love quadrangle" if you count Gwen's new guy.
- Naked People Are Funny: The naked ghost.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer for this film makes the other "ghosts" into much more of the plot than they actually are
- Precision F-Strike: "Did you ever think about not being such a fucking prick all the time?"
- Running Gag: Every time someone walks through a ghost, they sneeze. This gets cranked Up to Eleven when Pincus must traverse an entire room full of ghosts, trying to get away from them all.
- Left the Background Music On: Pincus is being chased by a bunch of ghosts, accompanied by lively chase music; then they run past the street violinist who is providing it.
- Later in the movie, he's coming clean to another character about the whole I See Dead People thing and the camera pans away to reveal that the drum music in the BGM is being played by a guy on a nearby park bench.
- Take A Moment To Catch Your Death
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What was the deal with the naked guy?
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