Sometimes you see a cast and you think that there’s no way the movie could possibly be bad. So much star power all in one place? Of course, it’s going to be a hit. Sometimes this plays out, like with both of the “Knives Out” movies. Sometimes you get movies like “Amsterdam” that don’t live up to their potential. The talent of the actors is only part of what makes a movie work, and in some cases, that talent alone is simply not enough. With both Ana de Armas and Chris Evans starring in Dexter Fletcher’s new Apple TV+ movie “Ghosted,” I was excited to see how this dynamic would play out.
Cole Turner (Evans) is a farmer, living a simple life with his parents. One day, he meets Sadie Rhodes (de Armas) and sparks fly. But despite an obvious attraction, after their first date, Sadie stops replying to Cole’s texts, absolutely ghosting him. When he realizes that he left his inhaler in her purse, he uses the tracker on it and decides that he will fly to London to surprise her. When he arrives, he is immediately accosted by a group of men working for Leveque (Adrien Brody), a ruthless mercenary who mistakes Cole for the super-spy, The Taxman. Can their romance survive a bevy of bounty hunters?
This movie felt like it had a lot of potential and just squandered it. I liked the idea of flipping the narrative where the girl is the spy and the guy is the one just along for the ride, but Evans really does not play the hapless farm boy convincingly. I absolutely love him as an actor, but you can’t spend more than a decade playing various superheroes and then disappear into a role as just some guy.
The chemistry between de Armas and Evans felt off, though I really think a lot of that was because they spent so much of the movie hating each other. Cole says that Sadie is “the one” after a single night together, but when they are actually together, there is non-stop bickering. It certainly doesn’t make me root for them to get together.
The movie does have some great production value. It looks like a really well-made spy movie. But for a rom-com, there is little romance and little comedy. There was one scene made up of a ton of cameos that was quite funny, but overall, I wanted something more. Even all of the action sequences felt rote and uninspired. The big set piece at the end stretched credulity a little too much for me, so even that didn’t work.
In 1994, James Cameron treated us to “True Lies.” It was funny and romantic and the action was fantastic. I really hoped that “Ghosted” would be a modern take on that movie, but instead, I feel like this phoned it in, expecting the good looks of the cast to carry it. This is a movie I think you could leave on read.
ALISE CHAFFINS is a Morgantown writer who loves movies and sharing her opinions. She reviews a movie from a streaming service every Saturday and one newly in theaters every Sunday. Find more at MacGuffin or Meaning on Substack.
