Keira Knightley is Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, who was a woman of uncommon intelligence in a time when women were thrust into the background, in The Duchess.

Paramount Vantage

One of the most overlooked yet critically praised films of the year is Ghost Town (Paramount, $29.99), a “spirited” romantic fantasy about a humorless New York City dentist who is unnerved to discover that he can suddenly see ghosts who follow him everywhere.

British comic actor Ricky Gervais stars as the tooth puller who has a bad reaction to anesthesia during his routine colonoscopy, dying on the table … but only for seven minutes. Ever since his flirtation with death, however, Dr. Pincus sees ghosts, lots and lots of ghosts, all over Manhattan. Like a Greek chorus, they follow him everywhere, hoping he can help them bring closure to some bit of unfinished business from their lives.

Most insistent and restless of all is businessman Frank Herlihy, played by Greg Kinnear in a tuxedo (which Frank was wearing when he died). Frank wants Dr. Pincus to scuttle the impending matrimonial plans of his widow, played by Tea Leoni, to a man Frank despises.

Gervais is a master at putting across droll, almost throw-away lines. Ghost Town has a lot of charm and surprises, coupled with sentimental moments and laughs.

The ‘eyes’ have it

If you’re looking for thrills to round out the year, look no farther than Eagle Eye (Paramount, $29.99). This paranoid action thriller has Shia LaBeouf as hapless Jerry Shaw, who is thrust into a wild cross-country chase with a woman he has never met after they’ve both been given orders by a mysterious female voice on the phone. If they don’t do as she orders, the silky-voiced woman on the phone threatens that he will be picked up by the FBI and her son will be killed.

Oddly, the woman on the phone seems to know their every move, their every whereabouts. She calls them on strangers’ cell phones, gives them instructions that are flashed on public transit message boards or garage parking signs. The voice even tells them which hairpin turns to make to escape pursuing police during a wild demolition derby chase through the streets of Chicago. She even changes all their traffic lights to green to help their getaway.

Who is she? What does she want?

That’s the mystery of this eerie film whose nonstop action finds Jerry tossed onto the tracks in front of a Chicago elevated train at one point, trying to race out of an auto tunnel in which the cars around him are being blown up by a military drone plane. Eagle Eye, which has a surprising ending, is a man-on-the-run thriller that’s peppered with paranoia.

Real-life parallel

History holds up a mirror image of real life in The Duchess (Paramount, $29.99). The film follows the unhappy adventures of a young, politically savvy woman whose marriage to a wealthy duke reveals itself to be a sham when she discovers he has long had a mistress on the side with bastard children, and has only married her to produce a legitimate heir to his title. Add in the delicious fact that the Duchess of Devonshire was born Georgiana Spencer and is an ancestor of Diana Spencer, who had her own problems by marrying into royalty two centuries later, and you can see the uncanny connection.

As played by Keira Knightley, Georgiana is a great beauty who was one of the leading celebrity lights of her day. Women tried to copy her elegant style. Her lavish parties were where everyone who was anyone wanted to be. A woman of uncommon intelligence in a time when women were thrust into the background, she was outspoken about politics and much in demand by politicians who wanted her to speak to crowds to drum up support.

On the surface The Duchess may seem like just another costume drama. But the passions and crises simmering underneath make it real, especially when one can so easily draw parallels to contemporary life.

Also this week

Head off to Malibu with Matthew McConaughey as Surfer Dude (Anchor Bay, $29.98); a cynical anti-American filmmaker crusades to abolish the Fourth of July, but is visited by three spirits who attempt to show him the true meaning of America in An American Carol (Vivendi, $26.99); the war against the zombies rages on in Resident Evil: Degeneration (Sony, $27.96); a 13-year-old Arab-American girl navigates the confusing and frightening path of adolescence when she’s sent to live with her strict Lebanese father in Houston in Towelhead (Warner, $27.95); four struggling actors, holed up in a mountain cabin to write a horror movie script, find their film plot is coming true in Baghead (Sony, $28.96).

From TV

Back for another round on your home screen are: The Secret Life of the American Teenager: The First Season (Disney, $39/99); Kyle XY: The Complete Second Season — Revelations (Disney, $39.99); Greek: Chapter Two (Disney, $29.99); Nip/Tuck: Season Five, Part One (Warner, $59.98); 10 Items or Less: The Complete First and Second Seasons (Sony, $29.95); Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget: Uncensored (Comedy Central, $19.99).

mjanuson@projo.com