You have to be pretty darn cynical to dislike this spiritual romantic drama that shows you don't have to expose breasts or buttocks to have a box-office winner that today remains a modern classic. It is a story of good vs. evil, a story of redemption and a story of what can bring about the damnation of the soul. The story focuses on two attractive young adults (Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore), so obviously in love, that even sudden tragedy can't end. Moore, at her softest and loveliest, is an aspiring sculptor, and Swayze is her Wall Street broker fiancée. Their closest friend (Tony Goldwyn) is supposedly their biggest supporter, but the fates prove otherwise. When Swayze is shot and killed in a botched robbery, he is immediately separated from the physical but remains on earth as part of a mission to protect Moore from on-going evils. Swayze locates a fake spiritualist (Whoopie Goldberg) whom he quickly realizes can hear everything he says and haunts her until she promises to help him warn the woman he loves.
"You in danger, girl", the Oscar Winning Goldberg tells her, and the skeptical Moore must fight reality and her need for communication from Swayze in order to go on with her life. The truth comes out quickly for the eternally awake Swayze who learns quickly the facts about being a ghost, first from a kindly old man whose spirit roams a hospital, and then from the angry ghost who fell off a train. The trains here are as much a character as Swayze, Moore and Goldberg are, tooting their horns as if a warning of evil premonitions. The J train/Myrtle Avenue stop is the location for where Swayze locates both his killer and Goldberg, and you can see him at various other New York City stops, learning the powers of being among the walking dead and jumping from moving train to moving train in order to locate the seemingly sinister ghost who initially screamed at him to "Get off my train!".
Then, there's Tony Goldwyn, playing one of the great villains of movie history, showing that a lifetime of loyalty only can go so far in surviving the Wall Street game. Rick Aviles is his sinister partner in crime, a character so vile that you can't wait for him to get his come- uppance. That comes so suddenly and horrifically that the sensitive spiritual best be warned. It opens a lot of room for talk about what is beyond our control outside of the world we see around us and what makes for righteous and what makes for ruthlessness and selfishly motivated ambition. Aviles was a versatile actor who could play more than just a New York street thug, showing great sensitivity as a homeless man who shows kindness to Danny Glover and Matt Dillon in the underrated "The Saint of Fort Washington".
As for Goldberg, she brings both a sense of her brilliant comic timing and subtle poignancy to the role of Ota Mae Brown, fake spiritualist who shows that underneath the facade of a life-long con-woman is a true beautiful human being. To watch her go from phony to fantastic is the stuff that retribution is made out of. Veteran character actor Phil Leeds is memorable as the first ghost Swayze encounters, while Vincent Schiavelli proves to be downright touching as the subway ghost, first frightening, then sadly vulnerable, an extraordinary cameo you won't forget.
Swayze shows that a Wall Street broker doesn't have to be a ruthless cheat or a non-feeling corporate S.O.B., yet he isn't perfect either, as evidenced in the somewhat sick scene with Goldwyn on the elevator where they play a prank on the stone- faced passengers that is delicious payback for those of us who have dealt with corporate coldness and the evils of office politics. Moore is a total winner here, absolutely gorgeous, and the epitome of what a true lady is. Her sadness over loosing the love of her life never makes you feel sorry for her, but you empathize with her. Jerry Zucker, the man behind "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun" movies, proves to be a brilliant dramatic storyteller, even if he comically spoofed the famous "Unchained Melody" sequence in the first "Naked Gun".
This is a story that everybody can find relatable, especially if you've gone through a tragic, sudden loss and need to find comfort in something more earthly than what any earthly being can tell you. The simple message is that grieving never completely goes away, but it gets better whenever the griever is ready for it to get better, in their own way and time.
