The ghost of my wife, María Ripoll’s new film is a crazy comedy of bed entanglements and infidelities that starts with good ideas but fails to go beyond its intentions. Without a perfect cushion, typical of the great films of this genre, it is difficult to support the weight that the crazy comedy implies. The challenge is to find the tone, that intangible capable of causing laughter with the mixture of gags excessive and ridiculous jokes.
Following the rules of the screwball comedy classic, the script revolves around all the calamities that surround a mistake, in this case that of a marriage that does not work and a fatal murder. We have a manipulative lover (María Hervás), a faint-hearted husband (Javier Rey), who in his own words is “an emotional imbecile,” and a candid wife (Loreto Mauleón). After a rough start, the mess gets underway and the film enters its most accomplished zone.
The best thing about the proposal is the idea of involuntary revenge that surrounds the entanglement and the awareness of Mauleón’s character. The physical blows that Javier Rey takes and the emotional blows of Mauleón make up the best game, especially for her, who demonstrates quite a comical tone in the composition of her not so innocent character.
With a career that is leaving its mark on comedy (from live twice a Don’t blame karma for what happens to you because you’re an idiot. or the most dramatic We will not kill ourselves with guns), Ripoll moves between the potholes of its source material and the possibilities, of suspense, of war of the sexes, around misunderstandings. Among the supporting cast, the policeman character (Marco Cáceres) has his share, although not the rest of the chorus. The sex sequences are central, but they are more crude than funny. Although the main problem with this crazy mess is that it contrasts the angelic wife with the perfidious lover and in the middle it leaves the puppet character who caused everything without character.
The ghost of my wife
Address: Maria Ripoll.
Interpreters: Javier Rey, Loreto Mauleón, María Hervás, Macarena Gómez, Marcos Cáceres.
Gender: comedy. Spain, 2026.
Duration: 95 minutes.
Premiere: February 20.