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A GHOST STORY (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

A GHOST STORY (2017) movie

Genre | Supernatural Drama

Classification | M

Running time | 90 minutes

Released | 27 July 2017

cast

Casey Affleck ... C
Rooney Mara ... M
McColm Cephas Jr. ... Little Boy
Kenneisha Thompson ... Doctor
Liz Cardenas Franke ... Linda
Barlow Jacobs ... Gentleman Caller

director

David Lowery

writer

David Lowery

cinematographer

Andrew Droz Palermo

music

Daniel Hart

film editor

David Lowery

box office result

Worldwide $2,000,000

Australia $98,705

North America $1,596,371

the best dialogue

Ghost 2: Hello.
Ghost 1: Hi.
Ghost 2: I'm waiting for someone.
Ghost 1: Who?
Ghost 2: I don't remember.

M: What is it you like about this house so much?
C: History.

Prognosticator: We build our legacy piece by piece and maybe the whole world will remember you or maybe just a couple of people, but you do what you can to make sure you're still around after you're gone.

A GHOST STORY (2017) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

A GHOST STORY (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

Resonating with vibrant memories and silent echoes of a shared life, the old house is somehow connected to "C", a sensitive composer who is hesitant of leaving it, while his loving wife "M", on the other hand, is keen on moving out, having an indecipherable but grim premonition of danger. Sadly, disaster soon strikes, and C's untethered spectre which detaches from the lifeless body, rises from the mortician's table, and in a swift decision, decides to linger in this dimension to faithfully follow the grieving M back to the old house. As silent as a shadow and as invisible as the air, C's unappeasable phantom observes M's denial and depression gradually turn to acceptance and even hope, as time unravels, moving forward through the decades.

A GHOST STORY (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 27 July 2017
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

If you're looking for a movie that makes it easy to connect the dots, A Ghost Story is not for you. On the other hand, if the prospect of being existentially challenged appeals, then Director David Lowery’s meditation on the nature of how we collectively move through time and space will be a welcome cinematic diversion. The point to keep in mind is that Lowery’s 92 minute film bears no relationship to the connotation prospective viewers may associate with its title. Yes, there’s absolutely a Ghost, but Lowery cleverly subverts the stereotype and turns an unwitting spectre into a genuinely sympathetic character. Viewers are taken on a journey, spanning hundreds of years, that could be described as “The Alternative History of Ghosts”. There’s a reason why paranormal phenomenon scare most people...

To fully appreciate A Ghost Story, viewers must accept that the central character, Casey Affleck’s character ‘C’, spends the great majority of the movie draped in a white hospital sheet, fulfilling a stereotypical visage, complete with dead black holes where the eyes should be. How ‘C’ comes to be a ghost in the first place is a tragedy in itself. He and partner ‘M’, played by Rooney Mara, are a couple at the crossroads of their lives. ‘M’ is keen to move to a new home, but ‘C’ is reluctant; the memories of their home mean something to him and he’s not as eager to move on. Lowery, who also wrote the film, presents the First Act in a conventional linear fashion, but as the Second and Third Acts unspool, he chooses to let the plot unspool at the same time, pulling apart the concept of time, space and existence. Through simple bad luck, ‘C’ finds himself having to choose between the ever-after or an Earth-bound existence in the presence of ‘M’, but without the opportunity of anything resembling a corporeal relationship. His choice has far wider consequence than he could have ever expected and leads him on a journey of self-discovery that he never had in his human form.

A Ghost Story succeeds by virtue of its understatement. At points in the movie, it feels more like a documentary than a dramatic presentation. Scenes unfold slowly with long silences between dialogue. Characters appear for a few moments, but are not seen again. Despite it’s fantastic subject matter, Lowery and Cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo takes great care in staging scenes with as much natural light as possible, adding to the film’s realistic tone. Under normal circumstances it would also be appropriate to credit the film’s Editor with having the courage to allow such long takes and not feel the need to cut back and forth to give the viewer some human frame of reference. Not so with A Ghost Story. Lowery also pulled editing duties on the project and his desire to stay with the Ghost’s perspective for the majority of the film makes the character someone the viewer comes to care about. Just because he’s a ghost, it doesn’t mean he’s lost all sense of what he was when he was human. Sadly, the majority of what he feels play to the stereotype of “things that go bump in the night”. Lowery puts his own stamp on them and the frustration that ‘C’ feels in his ghost existence provides an alternative perspective and some explanation as to why Ghosts always seem to be portrayed as malevolent entities.

Lowery’s film is an unexpected gem. There’s a great skill is telling a story that relies so little on dialogue. Despite this, the story conveys all the things it needs to at exactly the right point in the story. Insignificant chatter between ‘C’ and ‘M’ in the film’s opening minutes become important plot points later in the story. Strange occurrences turn out to have far greater meaning than first presumed. A Ghost Story is wonderfully written, wonderfully staged and is a movie that will have viewers thinking about life itself.