GHOST

PLOT SUMMARY

Molly Jensen and Sam Wheat — she a sculptor, he a bank executive — are living happily together whan Sam discoveres that his buddy Carl, another bank exec, is embezzing money from the accounts they manage. Soon after, Sam and Molly are mugged while walking back from the theater (a performance of Macbeth) and Sam is shot and killed. No one is more surprised than Sam to find himself looking down on Molly as she cradles Sam's head in her arms. He tries to speak to her but she doesn't react. No one sees him, or hears what he says — until, at the funeral, a woman standing apart from the crowd waves to him. At their apartment, all he can do is watch Molly in her grief; nothing reacts to his presence — except their cat. When he stares at its eyes, it hisses and leaps away.

Later, still at their apartment, he watches Molly and Carl pack up her possessions. Carl leaves and Molly goes out on some errand. Shortly there's a key in the lock; the mugger enters and starts searching for something. Nothing Sam does has any effect. Then Molly returns. Sam understands the danger she's in, but how can he help? Finally he stares at the cat, the cat leaps away and scratches the mugger's face. The mugger flees, and Sam follows him uptown on the subway until he encounters someone who sees him. This being angrily confronts him, yelling "Get out! This is my car!" and actually throws him into the next car, breaking a window in the process. But Sam is able to follow the mugger home, noting his name — Willie Lopez — and the address of the seedy room he infests. He watches Willie make a phone call, hears him say he didn't get it; "She came home." But don't worry, he tells the unknown someone, he will get it.

Sam, at a loss, descends to the street and looks around. He sees the neon sign of a "psychic advisor" and concludes he might find some help there. He walks in to find a seance in progress; the "advisor," Oda Mae Brown, is divining the name of whoever her client is trying to reach on the other side. "Her name is Adeline? Beatrice? Carla? . . . Maria?" "Ah, sí," says the client. "¡Mi madre!" Sam, previously silent, rolls his eyes and mutters, "What a crock of shit!"

"Who is that?" shouts Oda Mae. She gets up from her chair and runs around the room, distraught. Sam is delighted to find she can converse with him, but she doesn't want to. By singing, he keeps her up all night and wears down her resistance. They form a contentious partnership. Relaying Sam's information to Molly, Oda Mae convinces her to go to the police. But they have nothing on Willie Lopez, while Oda Mae has a rap sheet a mile long: she's a grifter from way back.

Meanwhile Carl keeps hanging around. Molly tells him she went to the police. He tenses, but she doesn't pick up on that. Carl is getting nervous; the deadline for him to transfer the money he's embezzeled in an account bearing the name of Rita Miller to a bank in the Bahamas is near. But eventually Oda Mae, with Sam's help, is able to gain Molly's trust. Sam comes up with a plan: he has Oda Mae don her best dress and pose as Rita Miller. By going to the most clueless employee at Sam's former bank, and prompted by Sam, Oda Mae is able to close the Miller account. She wants to hold on to the money, but Sam convinces her she will be traced if she does. Finally she signs the cashier's check over to "bearer" and gives it to a pair of nuns who are collecting donations down the street. They faint when they see the size of the check: $4 million.

Inside the back, 5 minutes from the deadline, Carl goes from one terminal to another. All tell him the same thing: Account closed. Now desperate, he still poses a problem for Sam and Molly — and Oda Mae too, because Molly saw her the bank, and told Carl. The solution to this problem depends on what Sam learned from the irate ghost on the subway.

Capsule review: Ghost wraps the ghost story up with a gripping murder mystery and a romatic tearjerker. The special effects are fine, convincing and never overused. But the best thing about this film is the performances; they are universally excellent, providing a captivating mix of comedy, pathos, tension, and violent action. Whether or not you believe in psychic phenomena, spirits, heaven, or hell, you will enjoy it.