Ghosted drew me with its talent involved though I never really followed director Dexter Fletcher or the project’s group of four writers. The lure for millions, including me, comes from a reteaming two favorites from Knives Out, Captain American and Marilyn Monroe. I mean, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, proven headlining talents with features that look gorgeous on screen. Ghosted sets them off in rom-com mode with a bit of meet-cute followed by chronic bickering that breaks them apart. Fine, but in romantic comedies, we all know where that leads so on the one hand Ghosted warrants dings for predictability and on the other…well, rom-com thrives on its tropes and cliches, and criticizing it for that resembles grousing about a giraffe for being tall. But a catch comes up—it turns out de Armas gets to play up on the spy skills she showed so well with James Bond in No Time to Die, so Ghosted turns into a thriller with world threatening weapons, evil henchman, a smarmy villain, fun locations, and a lot of predictable action. Insert giraffe comment here. Ghosted suits the style of its two genres that both excludes words like fresh and original, thriving instead on mindless escape.
