It stands to reason thatthings will happen in a film: conflict, resolution, love, loss, etc.Apparently, however, this doesn't apply to writer/director David Lowery (Pete's Dragon) when it comes to his newfilm, A Ghost Story. Attempting to bethe tale of a man who dies and then hangs around as a ghost—in an under-a-sheetkinda way—for basically the rest of eternity, what we're given instead aredrawn-out scenes of utter silence, some baffling storytelling choices and90-ish solid minutes of your brain screaming for something to happen.
Casey Affleck is C, a homeymusician-type on the verge of moving from a house he loves with his wife M(Rooney Mara). They've got problems, but we never get into that before C diesin a car wreck right outside their home. M is left to grieve and eat entirepies by herself for some reason while C either stands or sits there, lurking,unable to do much of anything other than knock a few frames around and makelightbulbs get really bright.
One could assume A Ghost Story is meant to be arumination on the dimensionless power of love or an examination of themetaphysical, but mostly we get the feeling that C is a little obsessed andwonder why he won't just move on already. This includes the millennia that passbefore his cut-out eyes, and we'll give Lowery credit for somehow making theidea of time being an infinite loop (see TrueDetective season 1 for more on that) as boring as he has, but other than anenjoyably surprising appearance from Will Oldham (Bonnie "Prince" Billyhimself) as the certifiably bleak Prognosticator, it's hard to swallow the mainevents of the film: long shots with nothing happening and the slow yet steadyrealizations that nothing we do matters, we're all going to die and when we do,we'll have to come to terms with having chosen to sit through A Ghost Story.
4
+ Beautifully shot, interesting music
- So much silence, we now feel empty
A Ghost Story
Directed by Lowery
With Affleck, Mara and Oldham
Violet Crown, R, 92 min.
