Ghosted is an over-caffeinated action comedy romance that tries too hard to be too many things, starting out as a sweet budding rom-com before drastically morphing into a violent international spy-chase movie anchored by a constantly bickering couple. This is one of those Hollywood movies that rarely slows down to breathe, throwing everything at the wall and just hoping some of it sticks.
It is also the kind of big-scale concoction that lives or dies on the appeal of its two big movie stars. In that regard, with a lovestruck Chris Evans working against his Captain America persona, and gorgeous and smart Ana de Armas switching gears on a dime, we do have a winning combination in front of the camera no matter how much the credibility of their instant union is stretched. You only wish director Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman) had slowed it down more often in order to make the one or two scenes in which he does seem less like a brief encounter with real-life human beings before the next big set piece turns it back into a Road Runner cartoon.
Basically this is the kind of formula we have seen many times, a mismatched pair arguing their way through some heart-stopping action like in Romancing the Stone, The Lost City, and even De Niro and Grodin in Midnight Run.
If you didn’t read the synopsis, you wouldn’t be wrong to think this was actually going to be your standard movie romance. Evans as Cole Turner and de Armas as Sadie Rhodes “meet cute,” clearly loathing each other at a local street fair in Washington D.C. where she attempts to buy one of farmer Cole’s prized plants. When his co-worker suggests there was considerable sexual tension between them he decides to track her down before her car takes off. One thing leads to another and before the day is done the pair find themselves in bed together before parting ways.
He is clearly smitten as he returns to the farm he runs for his family, telling dad (Tate Donovan), mom (Amy Sedaris) and cynical sister Mattie (Lizze Broadway) that despite past mistakes he thinks this may be the “one.” He is truly a romantic, and as we find out, an impulsive one who had already texted Sadie several times including with heart emojis, only to get no response. Is his innocent stalking turning her off? Is he being “ghosted”? Finally remembering he left his phone-tracking device in her purse somehow, he checks her whereabouts on his iPhone (this is an Apple Original Film, folks) and discovers she is in central London. Say what? On a whim, a “romantic gesture” as he calls it, he decides to pack up and fly off to England to surprise her. If you buy that, you will buy everything else to come.
Once there this rom-com turns considerably darker as Cole is ambushed, knocked out by sinister types on the street, and awakens in a torture chamber full of deadly bugs, as the lethal Borislov (Tim Blake Nelson) threatens him with murder hornets unless he coughs up a “passcode” he is convinced he has for a weapon of mass destruction known as Aztec that their boss plans to sell to the highest bidder. Mistaken for an expert operative only known as The Taxman, he nearly dies until masked CIA agent (who really is Taxman) come in with guns blazing and kills the bad guys before grabbing Cole and revealing she is indeed who he knew only as Sadie.
The bickering and fighting only resumes on a higher level as, now stuck with Cole, the pair has to hightail it to such exotic locales as Afghanistan and Pakistan, a bounty now on both of them put out by Leveque (Adrien Brody), a menacing villain and black-market arms dealer obsessed with getting that passcode and killing The Taxman. He enlists his scary henchman Wagner to help.
Wild chases, including one with a very colorful bus ride, shoot-outs and close calls, ejections from planes and so much else ensue as the action and stunts ramp up and Cole finds himself caught up in some terrifying brushes with death as Sadie just tries to do her job. Parachuting onto a deserted island and yet more battles all lead back to D.C. and a showdown in a sky-high revolving restaurant. There is no end to what they encounter, but will this all lead to a proper second date?
Evans is actually quite amusing in a switch where it is the guy who is the damsel in constant distress. He’s fun to watch and there is chemistry between him and de Armas, which you might expect since this represents their third teaming after Knives Out and The Gray Man, only this time he is a good guy. De Armas again shows she is a natural when it comes to action roles and a real screen presence. The rest of the cast is basically one dimensional, with Brody laying on the villain act like a new-age Snidely Whiplash. No one is taking any of this seriously, a point emphasized with a series of star cameos that reinforce the idea this is all a big joke. Those cameos, by the way, some with a clever connection to Evans, are the main highlights of the action and hilariously interspersed.
Check your brains at the door (or in this case on the couch) and you will have a good enough time thanks to Evans and de Armas. Producers for the Apple Original Films by Skydance production are David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Jules Daly and Evans, joined by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Deadpool, Zombieland) who also wrote the frenetic script with Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. It begins streaming on Apple TV+ on Friday.
Title: Ghosted
Distributor: Apple Original Films
Release date: April 21, 2023
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Screenwriters: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers
Cast: Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Mike Moh, Tate Donovan, Amy Sedaris, Lizze Broadway, Tim Blake Nelson, Anna Deavere Smith
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 1 hr 56 min