Ghost World review

Ghost World offers an amusing, dark and touching portrait of the angst-filled life of a disaffected teenager, Enid (Thora Birch), as she forsakes the sanctuary of school and ventures into the real world. The tough exterior she adopts as a defence is slowly eroded by events, exposing a vulnerable and lonely girl. Based on Daniel Clowes's comic book, director Terry Zwigoff has successfully conveyed the comic's illusory feel by setting Ghost World in some vague time period that has a closer resemblance to the fifties than modern day. The characters even seem slightly exaggerated. While the problems Enid face are conventional enough, Ghost World's appeal lies in the original manner it deals with them.

Birch, who played the truculent daughter in American Beauty, is perfect as the cynical and combative Enid who thinks, "Everyone's too stupid". With dyed hair and heavy boots, her punk image and surly attitude alienate her from everyone except her best friends Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) and Josh (Brad Renfro).

The film begins with the two girls graduating from high school and planning to get an apartment together while they decide what to do with their lives. Scanning the classifieds, they spot an advert from a man looking for the woman he'd passed in the street and thought he'd "shared a moment with". After initially playing a hoax on the man, Enid finds herself curiously drawn to the dorky Seymour (Steve Buscemi). Despite their age difference and the fact he possesses paralysing low self esteem, no fashion sense and an unhealthy obsession with old blues 78's, Enid begins to discover they have more in common than she'd like to admit. It's a feeling exemplified when Seymour confesses, "I can't relate to 99% of humanity". Enid is uncomfortable exposing her feelings. When talking of Seymour to the disapproving Rebecca, the closest she can come to praise is, "He's the exact opposite of everything I hate".

Zwigoff, with the help of fellow screenwriter Clowes, has managed to fill Ghost World with almost as many eccentric characters as appeared in his documentary Crumb about the endearingly odd cartoonist. Aside from the central roles, all of whom possess a colourful palette of idiosyncrasies, Enid's bombastic art teacher is brought vividly to life by Illeana Douglas, while Bob Balaban illicits sympathy and laughs as Enid's timorous father.

Beneath Ghost World's apparent cold façade, beats a warm heart. So when Enid proclaims "I think only stupid people have good relationships", you know the derision only partially conceals the envy.