The romantic comedy is back, baby! And it still has hot movie stars we know and love kissing each other. Ghosted is a movie that, on paper, seems like a textbook romantic comedy (but if you switched the gender of your lead archetypes), but is a surprisingly fun movie with a lot working for it. At times the pacing felt more like it was trying to hit a specific runtime, but when the bigger moments hit, you forgive the slower aspects of the film because it is genuinely nice to just watch two great actors having fun.
Cole (Chris Evans) is a man who doesn’t know how to be chill about a relationship. He’s too forward, way too honest about his feelings, and seems to often scare women off with the amount of commitment he’s willing to give to them. So when he meets Sadie (Ana de Armas) at the farmer’s market, the two are … fighting about commitment. Sadie wants a plant so that her sad apartment has some life to it and Cole doesn’t want to sell her a plant she’s going to kill.
It is a classic meet-cute mixed with the personalities of these two characters who are so incredibly stubborn that they need everyone throughout the movie reminding them that they’re two hot people who are clearly into one another. Which is, frankly, the bare-bones plot of every romantic comedy out there. But what works about Ghosted is the fact that they let Ana de Armas kick ass while Chris Evans flails in the background trying to not get shot.
Directed by Dexter Fletcher (Rocketman), the movie gives you exactly what you want: Hot people falling for each other—with a twist.
Chris Evans, damsel in distress
I didn’t think that Evans would nail the damsel role and yet he’s so good playing Cole that you’d almost believe he’d never played two different superheroes. Cole is the kind of romantic who thinks that you can fall in love instantly. It’s not a bad thing; that mentality is usually reserved for female characters. So I liked that Cole is the one who goes way too lovey dovey, way too fast. Throughout the movie, he has moments where he is such a perfect distressed companion on this journey that it makes for a hilarious dynamic between Cole and Sadie.
Sadie works for the CIA and her alias is “The Tax Man.” This means that no one is ever really searching for a woman when they’re looking for her. But when her enemies capture Cole, who decides to fly to London to surprise her (after he left her 11 unread text messages after one date), Sadie has to then bring Cole on her mission. Which results in Cole being thrown into a car chase, almost shot multiple times, and having a whiny cry-fest over the fact that he’s just a farmer.
It’s so dramatic and perfect for who Cole is that it just really clicks and makes you want to know more about him. Plus, just seeing Chris Evans run through a cave with a suitcase is genuinely hilarious. But the real action all goes to de Armas as Sadie.
We’d all love to be punched by Ana de Armas
We know that Ana de Armas can kick our asses. We’ve all seen her in No Time To Die and The Gray Man. But watching CIA agent Sadie Rhodes navigate gunfire and drive a bus during a car chase, all while trying to keep a bumbling Chris Evans alive, is genuinely impressive. She nails the aloof agent who is questioning her ability to kill in the name of her country without hesitation. But she also clearly cares that the men she’s hunting think that only a man can be the Tax Man.
Throughout the movie, Sadie and Cole continue to trade off issues. Sadie tells Cole that he “stalkered her” across the ocean and when Cole objects, she reveals that she used her database to look him up, and he turns her phrase right back at her. Later, the reverse happens, and it is through these moments that you see why Sadie and Cole work together despite a sea of people constantly telling them to get a room. Which, look, they’re both hot. Of course people would say that.
But de Armas shows us yet again that she can navigate all of these secret agent roles and their skills as fighters while making them completely different from one another. The Gray Man‘s Dani Miranda is colder than Sadie, but Sadie is a lot more aware of herself than Paloma is in No Time To Die. They’re all starkly different, and yet you’re captivated by them because of Ana de Armas’ power.
Cameos, oh my!
In a movie where you have extreme close-ups on Chris Evans and Ana de Armas—who have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen—you’d think that’s all you’d need. But this movie has … well, a sh—t ton of cameos. All great! But there’s a lot of them. I will not name them all because it is genuinely great when some of these people show up, but one notable casting (which isn’t a cameo, but still a big name) is Adrien Brody as Leveque.
Leveque is a man searching for the password to a weapon, and he’s the Tax Man’s biggest threat. And it’s Adrien Brody, so any time he’s on screen you’re instantly fascinated by what is happening. There are also smaller roles like Amy Sedaris as Cole’s mother, and Tim Blake Nelson trying to kill Cole with a murder hornet (remember when we were all afraid those would kill us?). And the cameos just keep coming, which makes for a fun extra adventure for fans to go on throughout the movie.
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Overall, Ghosted is a romantic comedy with high-stakes action sequences, and you get to watch Chris Evans quite literally just flap around in the background as he tries to run away from gunfire while Ana de Armas kicks ass. What’s not to love?
Ghosted drops on Apple TV+ on April 21.
(Featured image: Apple TV+)
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Rachel Leishman
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