“Ghosted”, a romantic action-adventure comedy, is a cheesy yet enjoyable movie. Starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, it had an experienced, well loved cast who are known for being generally attractive. The storyline was entertaining and followed a stereotypical action adventure movie plot. While being predictable and the graphics being unrealistic, it is still a fun watch for teens and adults.
The story followed Cole Turner, a humble farmer who lives with his parents and longs for love. When he meets the beautiful Sadie Rhodes at a farmers market, they break into an argument about caring for a plant. A nearby, mother-like vendor witnesses their small disagreement and urges Cole to go after Sadie, saying they were flirting.
Cole follows Sadie to her car, asks her if she wanted to hang out with him, and she grudgingly agrees. After a very long date involving karaoke, a club, a race up the stairs, coffee, sunsets and an art museum, they end the night in each other’s embrace. Afterwards, Cole goes home and texts her relentlessly. She ghosts him. With Sadie constantly on his mind, he realizes she has something he needs, his inhaler. Luckily, he has a tracker on his inhaler and sees it is in London.
Making a spur of the moment decision, he flies to London to find her. He then gets mistaken for the mysterious “Taxman” and is captured. Moments before Cole’s torture, he is rescued by Sadie, who holds a top-secret role in a world saving assignment. He is dragged on a dangerous mission with his life, and his love, on the line.
Evans, commonly known as the actor who played Captain America, took on a very different role in “Ghosted”. Previously playing the fearless hero, he now played the person needing a rescue. Having a female as the hero was an appreciated, modern spin on the typical damsel-in-distress situation. Armas portrayed her character beautifully, especially with Sadie being viewed as different things in different parts of the story. Evans and Armas previously starred together in “Knives Out” and “The Gray Man.”
There were a lot of cameos and very small roles played by well known actors. With Chris Evans being a producer, he was able to include a few actors from the Captain America movies. Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie were able to provide humor to the story through their very similar characters they portrayed. Near the end, Ryan Reynolds makes an appearance and jokes about losing body parts.
The graphics and action-adventure side of the film are far from impressive. In one scene, when a tire on fire rolls away, the fire is extremely unrealistic and digitized. Some of the shots were cheesy and the fighting was fake. The fighting scenes were of minimal occurrence, so it hardly took away from the enjoyment of the film.
There was some humorous symbolism that made the movie more engaging. In the beginning of the film, when Cole and Sadie first meet, Sadie gets a succulent. Cole takes this succulent all the way to London to give to Sadie as a joke. Through crazy car chases and wild airplane rides, this succulent takes a lot of hits but survives. This resembles the relationship between the two main characters. Their relationship seems to have a rough start and has a lot of rough patches in between, but in the end, the relationship comes out stronger.
From the beginning of the film, Sadie’s individual scenes had a somber mood, with slightly darker colors and a harsh tone of voice in the dialogue. In contrast, Cole’s first scene had a fun, joking mood at the farmers market. This scene had bright colors and smiling faces on all the characters. When Sadie enters this moment, the tone darkens slightly as they enter an argument. Throughout the movie, as the two’s lives intertwine, Sadie gets to experience more joy and Cole realizes the dark struggles some people face.
“Ghosted” came out on Apple TV+ on April 21, 2023. It is one hour and 56 minutes long and rated PG-13. It is currently rated number one on its streaming service. The monthly subscription for Apple TV is $6.99 after the seven day free trial.
