Witty Brit Gervais offers lesson in comedy banter

Starring Ricky Gervais, Tea Leoni, Greg Kinnear and Kristen Wiig. Directed by David Koepp. Rated PG-13 (some strong language, sexual humor and drug references). At metro theaters. 1 hour, 42 minutes.

Bottom line: A mild-mannered movie lifted by the interplay between Gervais and his co-stars.

"Ghost Town" serves as a very nice vehicle for the comedy stylings of Ricky Gervais, the Brit originator of "The Office" and showbiz-savvy (not really) star of "Extras." Gervais does clueless, wounded misanthropy well, and his "Ghost Town" character, Dr. Bertram Pincus, is that in spades —- lonely, needy, but so hostile to the rest of the human race that you'd never know it.

One day Pincus has a minor surgical procedure. Something goes amiss with the anesthesia and he dies —- for seven minutes. When he wakes, he sees dead people. And hears them. When they realize he can see and hear them, they won't leave him alone. They need favors from him, but he isn't having it.

Greg Kinnear is a heel who needs Pincus to look in on the widow (Tea Leoni) he left behind. He's the one who sticks to the good doctor like glue until Pincus agrees to help keep the lady from marrying her latest suitor. Trouble is, Pincus is smitten. Pity he doesn't know how to charm a woman.

The terrific thing in this romantic comedy is the way Hollywood's best and brightest lift their games to match the formidable Gervais in witty exchanges that often involve both characters talking at once, at cross-purposes, hilariously interrupting, avoiding and connecting.

It's a mild-mannered movie that may leave some waiting for the explicit sex and raw language of most Hollywood comedies. But as he did with the TV show that Hollywood adapted, Gervais shows he has a few PG-13 tricks to teach this R-rated business, if we just let him.