DeVito brings the laughs to family comedy/drama Haunted Mansion
FILM REVIEW: Haunted Mansion (12A) – seen at The Light Cinema, Wisbech
STARRING: LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chase Dillon and Jared Leto
DIRECTOR: Justin Simien RUN TIME: Two hours, three minutes
I didn’t know what to expect from this film. I try to avoid reviews before watching but knew they hadn’t been favourable… however, I was also aware that a movie starring Owen Wilson and Danny DeVito should guarantee at least a few laughs.
After seeing it, I think some of the critics have been overly harsh and yes, I can confirm that DeVito, especially, is still bringing smiles to faces well into his seventies.
Haunted Mansion tries to tick all the boxes for a family comedy/drama and it more or less succeeds. The plot is good enough to keep the adults interested and simple enough for the kids to understand, the horror is provided by harmless jump scares and the humour is of the laugh-out-loud variety.
Single mum Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) has moved into an old mansion with her nine-year-old son Travis (Chase Dillon), aiming to open a bed and breakfast. But when she finds the house is haunted, she calls on the help of a motley crew to try to help exorcise the ghosts.
Enter tour guide Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), psychic Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), priest Father Kent (Owen Wilson) and historian Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito).
Stanfield and Dawson inhabit the characters of Gabbie and Ben with warmth and gentle humour, a hint of romance between them always bubbling beneath the surface, while Dillon is cute and loveable as Travis.
Wilson is a tad disappointing as Father Kent and seems to think he’s still in a Sofology advert but Haddish does her best Whoopi Goldberg impression as psychic Harriet, Curtis is solid as Madame Leota – a psychic stuck in a crystal ball – and even Leto puts in a decent turn as evil ghost Crump.
But the star for me is DeVito. He’s made me laugh ever since playing the role of Louie in the TV series Taxi four decades ago, and he’s still just so likeable. The funniest parts of the movie centred around him and having DeVito possessed by an evil spirit was always going to work.
This film won’t win any awards and neither will it live long in the memory. But for good, summer holiday, family fun, it’s a winner.
Rating: 7/10
By Jeremy Ransome
