The fatigue is real in Ana de Armas and Chris Evans rom-com-adventure Ghosted

A high-octane rom-com-spy-adventure should be propulsive and fun, not just “kind-of-OK, sometimes”.

Ghosted is streaming now. Picture: Apple TV+

Ana de Armas and Chris Evans have been around the block twice already, the first time in Knives Out and again in The Gray Man but they’ve never been love interests before.

The pair clearly have great screen chemistry, whether they’re antagonists or lovers.

But is that chemistry enough to carry Ghosted, a flimsy and silly rom-com-cum-spy-adventure? Not quite. The idea behind Ghosted had legs but the execution is messy and tired.

It is, ultimately, harmless and goofy, but Ghosted is definitely nothing to get your pulses racing, no matter how charismatic de Armas and Evans are. Which is a problem when it’s meant to be a high-octane thriller comedy. That’s not a genre combo meant to inspire apathy and a shrugging, “meh, it’s kind-of-OK”.

Evans and de Armas’ chemistry is immediately apparent during the prickly meet-cute, and that sometimes-thorny dynamic and banter is the best thing Ghosted has going for it.

Scarlett Johansson was originally slated to play the role Ana de Armas ultimately took on. Picture: Apple TV+

After some initial hostility, Sadie (de Armas) and Cole (Evans) have an epic first date, the kind that goes for a whole day and night, lots of meandering and smiling, unable to break away.

She tells him she’s an international art curator who travels a lot for work. He’s an agriculturalist who says he’s travelled but you can tell has never left the US (although he was conceived in Ontario).

But when he gets a little intense on the text messages – yes, emojis count as another message – she “ghosts” him.

So, he does what any sane, measured and not-at-all-stalkery guy does. He tracks her down to London, in what he hoped was a grand gesture. They always say the line between grand romantic gestures and a restraining order is reciprocation.

Before Cole can even parse the essential question of where he falls, he’s drugged and taken by three burly men and finds himself caught in an international spy caper in which he’s mistaken for a super-agent, and Sadie (the actual secret super-agent) has to rescue him.

Ghosted is a rom-com crossed with an action spy adventure. Picture: Apple TV+

And together, they’re chased and hunted, and have to work to acquire a deadly weapon from arch-villain Leveque (Adrien Brody).

There’s a version of Ghosted that could’ve been a hell of a lot of fun, an out-there rom-com that makes the most of de Armas and Evans’ charms, but the bombastic action spy thriller in particular has been trotted out so much in recent years that there is little here to set it apart.

From the Kingsmen movies to The Gray Man to the Jack Reacher and Jack Ryan series, and even the awful Red Notice, there’s just been a lot of them. Which means we’ve seen a lot of hand-to-hand combat choreography, a lot of moustache twirlers, a lot of MacGuffins and a lot of car chases.

To Ghosted’s credit, it takes a few different punches – the car chase is going backwards down a hill and there’s a centrifugal, Gravitron-esque set piece that at least hasn’t been done before, even if it doesn’t do it very well.

And while Evans starts off playing a character who isn’t Captain America, by the final act, that muscle memory kicks in and he’s a suspiciously adept fighter for someone who’s a farmer.

The moustachioed villain. Picture: Apple TV+

Director Dexter Fletcher does what he can, but the material was never there. The script was co-written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. Reese and Wernick wrote the Deadpool and Zombieland movies while McKenna and Sommers penned or helped pen the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies.

Those guys are used to playing in this sandbox, but the sandbox is overflowing. And their experience actually works against them because Ghosted always feels like a duller version of their better works. Like this was the leftover scraps cobbled together from other scripts.

It’s the movie equivalent of bubble-and-squeak, and in their heart of hearts, no one ever wants bubble-and-squeak.

Even a bunch of fun cameos wasn’t enough to sustain the dynamism past the scene. The fatigue is real.

Rating: 2.5/5

Ghosted is streaming now on Apple TV+