As much as Disney gets flack and, at times, huge financial success from constantly remaking their classic animated features into live-action, they have another track they’ve been running over the past few decades. That track is turning Disney rides into movies, and they’ve had some really big successes. They’ve been chasing the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies for almost 20 years. Now 20 years Eddie Murphy starred in a movie based on the Haunted Mansion ride. It wasn’t a movie that worked for me and was basically in a down period for him in terms of his work. Now, after all these years, Disney is trying again, directed by Justin Simien of Dear White People fame. With a solid cast and a story that seems to have more moment from the ride than the old one and a stronger emotional core, Haunted Mansion kind of tries to do too many things at once.
LaKeith Stanfield plays Ben, an astrophysicist turned paranormal tour guide in New Orleans who’s in a downturn. In a state of grieving, Ben doesn’t really care much about anything. Still, after meeting a man of the cloth named Father Kent (Owen Wilson), he decides to try and help a woman named Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon), who has just moved into a massive and haunted mansion an hour outside of the city. Now Ben doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he made a camera that he thinks can capture the ghost particle as he tries to find the person he’s grieving for. Once there, he finds out he’s trapped, and as they bring in more help from the likes of Harriet, a medium played by Tiffany Haddish, and college history teacher Bruce (Danny DeVito) as they all try and figure out why the house is haunted and why they can’t leave.
The film has some pretty decent laughs as the characters deal with the ghosts. They react like you think people should respond to being haunted, and they can’t escape, so you can’t get mad about why they don’t leave. Stanfield’s sincere performance as Ben holds the laughs together. I swear this man can cry at the drop of a hat. He plays it straight, so it’s easy to follow his journey in all of this. DeVito, as he likes to do, steals that show with some of his moments. He’ll bring you some good laughs. Wilson plays a character that he’s known for in many of his past roles, you know, that kind of slick talker vibe he had in the 2000s. Dawson is perfectly fine as a well-meaning mom who wants better for her son. They make a connection between Gabbie/Travis with Ben, but it’s not overbearing. I liked Haddish, but they could’ve given her a bit more to do. All that said, this movie is two hours long, and I don’t feel it needed to be that long. It dragged a bit and felt a tad bit padded. So while I liked the movie, it might be a drag for others, and they should’ve saved this for Halloween time, but hey, they probably just want it on Disney+ by then, which might be the more enjoyable way to see this movie.
Score: C+
