Jerry Zucker's move from spoof comedy to romance works because he knows when to stop joking. We recommend Ghost for the care he takes with its lovers, despite a thriller plot that makes unnecessary work for them.
Fi1m perspective
Whoopi Goldberg's Oda Mae Brown treats a dead man's need for help as an unreasonable demand on her time. In Ghost (1990), Jerry Zucker lets that irritation grow without making the bereaved Molly Jensen's pain seem foolish. It is a delicate bit of comic direction: Goldberg can make a fuss, and the romance can remain serious. We trust Zucker most here, when he gives the funny character room without requiring everyone else to join the joke.
The sketch work he developed with David Zucker and Jim Abrahams became a film in 1977, directed by John Landis. Their subsequent spoofs relied on rapid gags and deadpan delivery. With Ghost, he moved into drama and gave grief and longing time to be felt. Bruce Joel Rubin's script supplies a wish we need little help understanding, another chance with someone we have lost.
We were moved by Ghost because Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore make the separation feel personal. Sam's attempts to reach Molly could have become a demonstration of supernatural rules. Instead, the performances keep our attention on two people who want to be together. Zucker gives their longing sufficient weight for the difficulty of making contact to matter.
The patience is less well judged in the thriller. Molly's repeated disbelief starts to look like a device for delaying the story, and Zucker cannot always conceal how hard Rubin's script is working to keep her unconvinced. Her hesitation is understandable at first, but its repetition wears away some of the sympathy the actors have earned.
First Knight (1995) continued the move away from comedy; Rat Race (2001) returned him to ensemble farce and reunited him with Goldberg. His feel for physical comedy helps Rat Race, though the gags are uneven. For a first encounter with Zucker directing alone, we would choose Ghost, with a little patience reserved for the thriller.
Biography
Jerry Zucker is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he graduated from Shorewood High School and began his career with his brother David Zucker and Jim Abrahams at the Kentucky Fried Theatre in Los Angeles, performing comedy sketches.
With the trio, known as ZAZ, he co-directed and co-wrote the spoof films Airplane! (1980) and Top Secret! (1984), and co-created the television series Police Squad!, later adapted into the Naked Gun film series. He directed the supernatural drama Ghost (1990) and later films including First Knight (1995) and Rat Race (2001). He has also produced films such as My Best Friend's Wedding (1997).
His mother, Charlotte Zucker, and sister, Susan Breslau, appeared in small roles in several of his films.
