'Blithe Spirit' Review: Dead, but Not Loving It - The New York Times

‘Blithe Spirit’ Review: Dead, but Not Loving It
Dan Stevens stars as a writer taunted by the ghost of his dead wife in this grating adaptation of the 1941 play.
Dan Stevens and Leslie Mann in “Blithe Spirit.”Credit...Rob Youngson/IFC Films
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A comedy that’s more screw-loose than screwball, Edward Hall’s “Blithe Spirit,” a ludicrous adaptation of Noël Coward’s 1941 stage play, reimagines its source material as little more than a slip-and-fall farce.
Dan Stevens stars as Charles, a near-parody of a blocked writer who’s introduced literally eating the words he has just typed. Commissioned to write a screenplay of one of his best-selling novels, Charles is desperate: Bedeviled by bedroom dysfunction (“Big Ben’s stopped chiming,” he whines to a friend), he hopes to find inspiration by inviting a disgraced psychic (Judi Dench) to host a séance in his imposing Art Deco mansion.

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