Jump to the good stuff: The Story | Some Thoughts | The Final Verdict
The Story:
Poltergay is a comedy about a straight couple who purchase a house haunted by gay ghosts.
Emma (Julie Depardieu) and Marc (Clovis Cornillac) buy a house that has been uninhabited for thirty years. Unknown to them, in 1979, there was a gay club in the basement that blew up when a foam machine exploded, killing the men inside.
Now the ghosts of the dead gay men are haunting the house and only Marc can see them. And when Emma finds Marc interacting with people who aren’t there, she begins to think he’s gone mad. The ghosts become so distracting to Marc that he begins ignoring Emma, who soon leaves him.
It isn’t until Emma is gone that Marc realizes he’s the only person who can see the ghosts and begins to think he’s gone crazy. After realizing that other people can see the ghosts, he becomes friends with them, and they help him win back Emma.
Some Thoughts:
Poltergay is amusing at first but gets stale fast. Some of this is due to the meandering script and the same tired joke that plays out longer than necessary. Especially the chase scene between Marc and the ghosts.
It also takes Marc way too long to realize that Emma can’t see them. If it was less obvious that Emma can’t see the ghosts this might work, but not when Marc’s constantly hearing 1970s dance music that she can’t, seeing people she says aren’t there, etc…
There’s a point in the film where Marc goes to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist thinks he’s seeing people who aren’t there due to suppressed homosexual desire. During Marc’s visit, the psychiatrist seems bored, and the only joke is that we later find out that he was doodling instead of taking notes while listening to Marc.
The story also moves from one event to another as if hunting for something funny. And because of this, Marc’s pet cat, who spends the beginning of the story hissing at the ghosts, suddenly drops out of the story.
The Final Verdict:
Poltergay is a comedy with a ton of untapped possibilities. While the premise is amusing, the jokes often fall flat, and the story quickly gets old. This could have been done better.
