Film Review: Corey Needs A Little Help Solving Her Own Murder

Ghost of New Orleans is a supernatural thriller written by Gerald and Justin Di Pego and directed by Predrag Antonijevic. The cast includes Josh Lucas, Terrence Howard, Lake Bell, and Cary Elwes, The film was released in 2011, so it isn’t that new, but it is still worthy of a blog entry since I have not seen it before.

Lucas plays a disgraced, guilt-ridden police detective in New Orleans who spends a bit too much in the company of the bottle. After a tragic and controversial shooting, Detective Chaney is tasked with keeping a suspect under surveillance. Howard plays the eccentric neighbor who sued the police. He develops an unusual friendship with Chaney, who finds himself in a stranger relationship. A young brunette keeps appearing and disappearing. When she is able to communicate with Chaney, she explains that she was murdered, and her brother was not the culprit. Chaney finally gets intrigued enough to take another look into the case. There is also a serial killer lurking around the Big Easy that is causing some concern as well.

So it has some elements that I like in a film such as a few interesting characters, some murder, and a pretty ghost. Howard and Lucas are two talented guys who have been in a lot of movies and they do their best here. I thought Howard was pretty intriguing as a guy named Drag Hammerman. The character’s name seems a little absurd, but I like it. He has the peculiar habit of narrating the reactions of those around him. He is apparently in the midst of concocting a pretty unique memoir. It’s an intriguing dynamic between the two men. Lake Bell as the ghostly murder victim who was a cellist, does pretty well.

The story is a bit short on explanations such as why Chaney was the only one who could communicate with Corey Little, the dead beauty, who is not happy with how her murder case was closed.

The story was still adequate, but not much more than that. The writing is more of the weak point than the actual performances. The twist at the end was not that much a surprise. Also, I did not get that much of a sense of the unique character of New Orleans.

Anyway, the movie has some interesting aspects in its favor, but not much for it to stand out. It still leaves too many questions unanswered for my liking.