"Ghost World" is an offbeat, character-driven film that chronicles a few months in the life of an eccentric young woman of about 18. This quirky movie starts out as a laugh-out-loud comedy, then gradually becomes more and more of a drama, and finally arrives at an enigmatic ending. I had a great time watching "Ghost World" on DVD, and I liked the DVD's special features, too, although I wish there had been more of them.
Even as the opening credits roll, "Ghost World" signals its unconventionality by showing its protagonist Enid (Thora Birch) enjoying a videotape of a song-and-dance production number, performed in Hindi, from a 1965 Bollywood movie titled "Gumnaam." I had fun later watching the special feature on the DVD that shows a 5-minute-20-second version of the number, which is called "Jaan Pehechaan Ho." I think it's a hoot that the words on the band's big drum read "Ted Lyons and His Cubs."
The story gets underway at Enid's high school graduation ceremony, which Enid attends with her classmate Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson). The girls are longtime best friends who enjoy hanging out together and discovering curious places like Wowsville, which Enid characterizes as the "Taj Mahal of fake fifties diners." One day while they're passing the time in Wowsville, they read a personal ad in "The Weekly" placed by a man asking a woman he encountered briefly by chance to phone him, and the girls decide to pull a cruel prank: Enid calls the man up, pretends to be the woman, and arranges for him to meet her at the diner.
At the arranged time, Enid and Rebecca sit in Wowsville and watch a fortyish man (Steve Buscemi) with the hangdog look of a loser come in, and Enid immediately labels him "a clueless dork." He never notices the girls and eventually leaves when the woman he expected to meet doesn't show. Later, Enid and Rebecca go to one his garage sales, where they discover his name is Seymour. Soon Enid finds herself drawn to Seymour by way of his collection of traditional jazz and blues records, and they become friends.
Although Enid attended her graduation ceremony, she didn't actually graduate: she still has to successfully complete an art class during the summer. Enid is skilled at drawing cartoons, but the teacher (Illeana Douglas) is into things like a tampon in a teacup, which she delightedly declares to be a "shocking image of repressed femininity." In frustration, Enid brings to class a politically incorrect painting she borrowed from Seymour and tells the teacher that it's a "comment on racism."
As the summer wears on, things don't go well for Enid. She can't hold a job, she and Rebecca start to drift apart, and Seymour stops spending time with her because his new girlfriend doesn't like it. Then Enid's troubles really start to mount when her politically incorrect painting causes a furor at a neighborhood art show called "Brotherhood and Community: Art as Dialogue."
I really admired Thora Birch's performance as Enid in "Ghost World." Although Enid is pretty much of a loser throughout the movie, I found myself rooting for her anyway, but maybe that's because, like her, I hated high school and had difficulty adjusting to life as a young adult. Birch does a wonderful job of portraying a young woman who goes from being as numb as all the other people who drift through their lives as if they were ghosts to becoming a person who can love and feel and take chances.
I also liked the way Steve Buscemi played Seymour, and the friendship between Enid and Seymour is truly touching. Another thing I liked a lot about the film is its implicit criticism that too much of the United States is being overtaken by tacky strip malls and fast-food outlets. I'm just as offended as the customers in the movie are by clerks continually trying to up-size me to a larger beverage or bully me into buying something I haven't asked for.
Special Features on the DVD:
Deleted/Alternate Scenes (4)
"Jaan Pehechaan Ho" Music Video From "Gumnaam"
"Making of 'Ghost World'" Featurette
Trailers
