A Ghost Story Dir: David Lowery

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Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara

A Ghost Story has been described as a film people either love or hate. I beg to differ. I viewed the screening at Auckland’s Civic Theatre about 12 hours ago and I am still trying to decide how I feel about it.

Director David Lowery’s (Pete’s Dragon) film is a study in minimalism, yet offers up some of life’s biggest questions, although, not necessarily the answers.

The two main characters, a young married couple played by Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara have no names and are only known as “C” and “M”.  Lowery’s camera rarely moves, instead remaining static, staring for what seems uncomfortably long periods of time as events occur.

And, for a film about a man who dies and returns as a ghost, there are almost no special effects, just Casey Affleck standing still, or walking slowly draped in a white sheet with two eyeholes cut out.

There is virtually no dialogue, and what words Affleck’s character does speak are almost unintelligible thanks to his increasingly annoying habit of mumbling.

There is little “action” other than some dishes being smashed and a bulldozer smashing down the family home.

Instead we follow the recently deceased “C” back to him home as he watches his wife grieve, take a new lover and eventually move out. But “C” is apparently stuck in the place although he is able to travel through time and communicate with the ghost in the house next door.

“C”, and us, eavesdrop on the various inhabitants of the house, the most notable being a group of young people who throw a small dinner party at which one of them, played by Will Oldham, launches into a long diatribe explaining how useless it is to create anything as, eventually the earth will be swallowed up by the sun, so what’s the point.

Exactly how this diatribe fits in with what Lowery is trying to say is certainly up for discussion. My guess is that it serves as a nihilistic counterpoint to the rest of the film.

Any more explanation of what happens would possibly spoil the experience for those planning to see A Ghost Story.

My advice would be to go into the cinema with an open mind and let the film wash over you. Whether it is a work of genius or a case of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is still up for debate, as far as I’m concerned. But that debate, in and of itself, is enough to make seeing A Ghost Story worthwhile.

Marty Duda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pOh2ZoUui8

Marty Duda
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