A Ghost Story Movie Review

A Ghost Story (2017)

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Written by: David Lowery
Directed by: David Lowery
Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara
Rated: R
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Plot
In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss, and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife.

Verdict
I like movies that push creative boundaries. There aren't many movies like this that are so quiet and focused. This is a movie about a ghost watching the world go by, and in turn we watch this ghost. This doesn't conform to what's typical. There's little dialog and even less action. It makes you wonder what this movie is supposed to be, but it also gives you time to speculate and guess. We wonder about what it means to live and die while watching a man in a sheet.
Watch It.

Review
This movie is very deliberate, even slow. Shots linger for much longer than anticipated, but you can see the craft in it. These longer scenes set us up perfectly for the scene in the morgue.

We get these silent scenes of this ghost in the living world watching his wife as she deals with the grief of losing her husband. She's in the kitchen, the grief heavy, as a white sheeted ghost stands in the background staring at her. There's no dialog, but the scene allows us to consider what both of them are thinking. We're writing parts of the story as it unfolds on screen, providing background.

Rooney Mara plays the wife

With no surprise, this doesn't explain much. It seems time passes differently for the ghost. What time does pass on screen must be much longer than it seems. It's a dreary movie that confronts loss. We see a ghost that provides a perspective on what the dead have lost instead of just a view from the living.

I wondered if the ghost was stuck in the house. He walked there from the hospital, but he doesn't leave. I wondered if so much time had passed that he only had fleeting memories of the past, now only remembering this house. He sees time pass as people move in and out. He remains. The most talking in this movie occurs during a monologue from an inhabitant about the futility of living.

Casey Affleck plays a ghost

This does a lot with very little. So many shots are this ghost just existing in a world around him that is ever changing. The house acts as a reference through time, but there is so much that we don't quite understand. The lack of dialog combined with the music and not being able to see his face makes this so unsettling. The one constant other than the house is the loss experience by the ghost. He lives in it, and towards the end of the movie I wondered if he even remembered what he lost. Does he only remember grief? 

This isn't a movie you can predict, but I really like how the story loops back on itself. Everything is connected including past, present, and future. I like that this is almost an antithesis to what a typical movie is. Scenes are long and silent because this is a thoughtful movie. It doesn't tell us what's happening, it asks us to consider what the characters are experiencing.