A tale as old as time . . .
A Ghost Story (12A)
Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara
Director: David Lowery
The Plot: A young couple, C and M, share a loving life together in an old house in a quiet rural area. When C is tragically killed in a car accident, he returns as a white-sheeted ghost. Unable to be seen, heard or felt, he is forced to first watch M deal with her grief and then, as time passes, the entire world he knew change radically.
Review: To say that this film is original, and odd, is a bit of an understatement. This is a film where Casey Affleck spends 90% of his time mute, virtually unrecognisable beneath a white sheet. It's not a horror film - there's no menace or scares - and it's certainly not a comedy, despite the deliberate choice of C's ghost appearance to resemble the classic costume a kid might wear on Halloween. No, this is a brave, heartbreaking story of love and loss that will stay with you long after it finishes.
If you haven't seen David Lowery's 2013 film Ain't Them Bodies Saints I highly recommend you do, as it's a terrific modern Western that also features Affleck and Mara. Lowery has reunited them here for A Ghost Story and, despite them playing another couple, it couldn't be a more different film. Given the description that I've given you, you probably won't be surprised to learn that it was shot on a very low budget ($100,000). It's a testament then to what can be done on such a small scale: this film will play with your fears about death, whether you knew you had them or not. It presents you with questions: what would you do in that situation? How would you cope if you suddenly found yourself unable to be seen or heard by your loved ones? How would you deal with the world moving on and forgetting you?
It's a beautifully presented film, shot in an unsual aspect ratio that gives the impression that you're viewing the events through a photograph. Everything about it is visually gorgeous, from the design of the house that C and M share (and where C ultimately ends up spending a lot of time) that becomes a character in itself, to the vistas that surround it. There are some beautifully-framed shots during the initial period of time C spends at the house as a ghost while M is still there. Sound also plays a very important role in this film: dialogue becomes very minimal after C becomes the ghost, and while some incidental music is used, there are large sections where the only noise we hear is environmental noise and non-verbal cues from the characters. It reinforces C's isolation from the world and is used to great effect.
I take my hat off to Casey Affleck, as to take a role like this where you spend the majority of the film unrecognisable, takes not only courage but also great skill to pull off. And he does. In the scenes he shares with Mara when C is still alive he's as good as you'd expect: C is a quiet individual (a music producer) who's blissfully happy with M. There's a fantastic (and lengthy) scene where, returning to bed after being woken from an unknown sound, C and M kiss and cuddle before slowly falling back to sleep. It's clear (and a credit to Mara too) how completely happy and comfortable these two characters are with each other. But when C becomes the ghost, it's incredible how much emotion Affleck is able to portray without being able to speak or to see his face. It all becomes about body language, and he nails it here. We can tell when he's angry, when can tell when he's sad, and we can even tell when he's at the end of his tether.
Rooney Mara, similarly, is fantastic in this film, despite her getting less screen time (she's absent for about the last 30mins of the film). Like C, M is a somewhat quiet character but she has more dialogue while C is still alive and she's very believeable as a character who, while just as obviously in love with C as he is with her, is clearly unhappy with some parts of their life. She's best in her scenes after C has died and returned; her grief is absolute and believeable, and there's one particular scene which was outstanding: lasting almost ten minutes, M returns to the house to find a pie a friend has left for her. She sits down on the floor and begins to eat it, C watching her from the corner of the shot, and the more she eats the more her grief begins to come to the surface as her actions become less and less controllable, until eventually she breaks down and dashes to the toilet to be sick. It's a powerful scene and really shows what a brilliant actor Mara is.
Given the subject matter, the presentation of C as the ghost, and the lack of dialogue, it's clear that this film isn't going to be for everyone. A few people got up and left the auditorium during the screening I went to. I think some people just won't like it, and some people just won't get what Lowery is trying for here. Even during the third act of the film, after M has left the picture and C (now seemingly incapable of grapsing how much time is passing) now deals with the physical world around him changing, it opens up more questions. But if you're open to this kind of experience, believe me when I say that this is a film that's, if you'll excuse the pun, haunting.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
A truly original, beautiful, heartbreaking film featuring incredible performances that asks questions about love and life and death. It's odd, and I dare say that it'll be divisive too, as some people just won't like it or understand it. But this is hands down one of the best films I've seen this year.
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