Released Friday, April 21 on Apple TV+, “Ghosted” follows CIA agent Sadie Rhodes (Ana de Armas) and farmer Cole Turner (Chris Evans) as they meet at the farmers market and, almost immediately after, go on a date at an art museum. Sadie ghosts Cole after their date, resulting in him tracking her down and following her to London. However, when he gets to London, he is unintentionally roped into the high-stake CIA case that forced Sadie to leave the United States so quickly. 

Although the film has an almost two-hour runtime, the plot has no obvious climax and focuses on corny jokes instead of character development. Additionally, Sebastian Stan’s and Anthony Mackie’s cameos serve the sole purpose of furthering the romantic relationship between Sadie and Cole — this would be fine, but with obvious chemistry between them after their unrealistic first date, penciling in numerous jokes about their sexual tension is unnecessary and annoying. Even as an action movie, the action sequences are always tainted with another dumb joke about the sexual tension between the two protagonists. 

Along with being confusing, cliché and chaotic, the movie completely brushes over the creepy nature of the main protagonist, considering he tracked the location of a girl after one date and flew halfway across the globe to see her because she ghosted him. With their relationship development being limited to the occurrences of that singular date, the events that were meant to be cute feel forced and uncanny instead.

The movie’s saving grace is its actors, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, who do a phenomenal job with the atrocious script they were given. Their acting feels real and, if viewers were to ignore the dialogue, they would be able to sense the chemistry through body language alone. Furthermore, with a star-studded lineup of cameos, the overall cast for the movie is very impressive. Viewers can also appreciate the cinematography, especially regarding its action scenes where the fighting is engaging, the acting makes the scenes feel realistic and the shots used fully encapsulate the tension within these scenes.

Overall, “Ghosted” had the potential to be amazing if it flowed less like a Hallmark movie. Furthermore, the plot is fundamentally strong, as the movie’s main concept of a stranger and spy falling in love, only for the stranger to realize the spy’s true colors, could have led to a very engaging movie. Yet the script was flawed, making a seemingly-engaging plot instead feel dry and corny. With its overemphasis on romance and its plot being cluttered with jargon, what could have been the action movie of the year instead proved to be awfully-written and cliché, falling short of expectations. 

1.5/5