The Time of Your Life: "A Ghost Story" Review
"In a 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."
Written & Directed by: David Lowery
Starring: Casey Affleck
Rooney Mara
What will your legacy be when you die? Will what you accomplished mean anything? Will you mean anything? These are the questions that David Lowery's latest asks. Answering them isn't much of a concern for Lowery as much as exploring them is. A Ghost Story is an odd, sometimes silly, sometimes breathtaking little film whose whole is greater than its parts. It isn't like anything you'll see all year (or any other year, really) and it's not concerned with narrative conventions or characters or plot. If you can separate your preconceived notions of conventional storytelling, I think you'll find that this film works itself over you effortlessly.
The plot, light as it is, concerns C (Affleck) and M (Mara) a couple living in a house. Their only real source of conflict stems from C's disinterest in moving from their house. Pretty early on, C is killed in a car accident and after M confirms his body at the morgue their story is over. Until C sits up on the table with a blanket draped over him, the traditional ghost iconography being used to full effect. C's ghost moves into the hallway where he's met by a bright door of light. He declines to enter, opting to turn left and head back to his house where his wife is. From then on the film becomes a meditation on life, loss, legacy and time. What this lacks in plot it more than makes up for in theme and originality.
David Lowery is an interesting filmmaker who has carved an odd path for himself in his burgeoning career. After breaking out with the pseudo-western, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, he was given the keys to a Disney tentpole, Pete's Dragon. The latter is easily the best of the Disney remakes that have littered our screens in recent years. Instead of looking to take the animated film and transfer it to live action, Lowery made a heartfelt, whimsical and emotional fable. It wasn't a massive financial success like The Jungle Book or Beauty and the Beast but it was a big hit with critics. Lowery probably could have done anything he wanted after that which is why it's so refreshing to see him do something like this instead of going even bigger. Opting to move from one fable to another was a bold move that pays off in dividends because it forces you to pay attention to him.
I think the biggest sell the film asks you to buy is the sheet over Casey Affleck. It's one thing to cover your main star for 90% of the film but it's another thing entirely to do it in such a goofy, childlike way. It jelled with me instantly and if you can get past its quiet absurdity, the film is quite rewarding. I found the sheet to work well in stark contrast to the profundity of what we're seeing. It's a film that at once takes itself too seriously and not seriously at all. The dynamic this creates forces you to reconcile with the cynical yet hopeful nature of the film. It's telling you that life is this big, important thing that you should hold onto for as long as you can, and in the very next sentence that your life will be meaningless when you're gone because the world just keeps moving without you. Time is a tricky thing because we have so little of it until we're dead and then we have all of it.
I want to try to talk about what the main thrust of the film is without spoiling too much of it because I think you really owe it to yourself to see it. C waits at home for his wife every day and tries to break through to her. She can't see him of course and as she moves through her grief, C is stuck waiting. Days pass by like seconds for him and in a neat effect, Lowery shows us M leaving for work every day from C's eyes. As she leaves the house, another M in different clothing walks from the bathroom and out the front door right as the M before her shuts the door. This repeats three or four times and it's a strong yet simple device. As M decides to leave the house, she slips a note in the wall and paints over it leaving C to scratch at the wall to unearth the note. Again, beautifully captured, time passes like seconds to C. We see new people moving in and out, a future that doesn't seem too far off and all the while, C is left to be an invisible witness. There's something so haunting about seeing his (now dirty) sheet moving the cavernous skeleton of a skyscraper as construction workers move around him. The most effective scene by far is when C looks out the window of his house and sees another ghost staring back it him. They speak in subtitles and the ghost tells him that she's waiting for someone. "Who?" he asks. "I can't remember." That little exchange happens over maybe two minutes and it hits you in the chest like a ton of bricks. Their meeting, for me, is the entire film encapsulated.
While there isn't much to speak of in terms of performances, I think both actors do well with the little they're given, especially Mara. There's a scene early on where Mara eats an entire pie while breaking down in tears. It's an extended take and lasts for close to ten minutes, just a static shot of her eating the pie as she slowly succumbs to her grief. This could be a make or break moment for a lot of people and while it does border ever so slightly on being ridiculous, I think Mara nails it. It's a tough scene to watch but the strength of her performance compels you not to look away. She and Affleck both possess a strong ability to project a variety of emotion while saying or doing very little.
The one thing that holds A Ghost Story back from being a true masterpiece is that it doesn't go far enough with its premise. If it really wanted to encapsulate the enormity of time then I think C's journey through it should have been expanded. You're overcome with heartbreak watching him wait for M as the world around him crumbles and is rebuilt but the journey feels stunted. This is a 90 minute film which is usually just about a perfect run time but this is a case where I could have watched at least another half hour. Another minor problem is a scene in the middle where during a party, a nihilist (musician Will Oldham) regales the party-goers with his take on life, death, global warming and everything else. What he says is compelling in a way but it kind of stops the film dead because it's basically as if Lowery looks into the camera and goes "THIS IS WHAT MY FILM IS ABOUT!" It isn't a bad scene but I found it slightly overindulgent and unnecessary.
The fact that the scene stands out says a lot about how subtle the rest of the film is. Lowery is able to convey a quiet, stark and emotional message through long stares out of windows and deep embraces of lovers. A Ghost Story is sometimes silly, sometimes heartbreaking but wholly unique and stands out as one of the better films of 2017.
A Ghost Story is an experience in the truest sense of the word. In the dog days of summer where we're getting the dregs of what studios have to offer, I implore you to seek this one out if you can. Lowery's voice is a true original and one that I think we'll be seeing more of for years and years to come. Not a perfect film and one that will definitely test your patience, but there's nothing quite like it. If you can buy into the gimmick, you're in for a pretty rewarding 90 minutes.
The plot, light as it is, concerns C (Affleck) and M (Mara) a couple living in a house. Their only real source of conflict stems from C's disinterest in moving from their house. Pretty early on, C is killed in a car accident and after M confirms his body at the morgue their story is over. Until C sits up on the table with a blanket draped over him, the traditional ghost iconography being used to full effect. C's ghost moves into the hallway where he's met by a bright door of light. He declines to enter, opting to turn left and head back to his house where his wife is. From then on the film becomes a meditation on life, loss, legacy and time. What this lacks in plot it more than makes up for in theme and originality.
David Lowery is an interesting filmmaker who has carved an odd path for himself in his burgeoning career. After breaking out with the pseudo-western, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, he was given the keys to a Disney tentpole, Pete's Dragon. The latter is easily the best of the Disney remakes that have littered our screens in recent years. Instead of looking to take the animated film and transfer it to live action, Lowery made a heartfelt, whimsical and emotional fable. It wasn't a massive financial success like The Jungle Book or Beauty and the Beast but it was a big hit with critics. Lowery probably could have done anything he wanted after that which is why it's so refreshing to see him do something like this instead of going even bigger. Opting to move from one fable to another was a bold move that pays off in dividends because it forces you to pay attention to him.
I think the biggest sell the film asks you to buy is the sheet over Casey Affleck. It's one thing to cover your main star for 90% of the film but it's another thing entirely to do it in such a goofy, childlike way. It jelled with me instantly and if you can get past its quiet absurdity, the film is quite rewarding. I found the sheet to work well in stark contrast to the profundity of what we're seeing. It's a film that at once takes itself too seriously and not seriously at all. The dynamic this creates forces you to reconcile with the cynical yet hopeful nature of the film. It's telling you that life is this big, important thing that you should hold onto for as long as you can, and in the very next sentence that your life will be meaningless when you're gone because the world just keeps moving without you. Time is a tricky thing because we have so little of it until we're dead and then we have all of it.
I want to try to talk about what the main thrust of the film is without spoiling too much of it because I think you really owe it to yourself to see it. C waits at home for his wife every day and tries to break through to her. She can't see him of course and as she moves through her grief, C is stuck waiting. Days pass by like seconds for him and in a neat effect, Lowery shows us M leaving for work every day from C's eyes. As she leaves the house, another M in different clothing walks from the bathroom and out the front door right as the M before her shuts the door. This repeats three or four times and it's a strong yet simple device. As M decides to leave the house, she slips a note in the wall and paints over it leaving C to scratch at the wall to unearth the note. Again, beautifully captured, time passes like seconds to C. We see new people moving in and out, a future that doesn't seem too far off and all the while, C is left to be an invisible witness. There's something so haunting about seeing his (now dirty) sheet moving the cavernous skeleton of a skyscraper as construction workers move around him. The most effective scene by far is when C looks out the window of his house and sees another ghost staring back it him. They speak in subtitles and the ghost tells him that she's waiting for someone. "Who?" he asks. "I can't remember." That little exchange happens over maybe two minutes and it hits you in the chest like a ton of bricks. Their meeting, for me, is the entire film encapsulated.
The one thing that holds A Ghost Story back from being a true masterpiece is that it doesn't go far enough with its premise. If it really wanted to encapsulate the enormity of time then I think C's journey through it should have been expanded. You're overcome with heartbreak watching him wait for M as the world around him crumbles and is rebuilt but the journey feels stunted. This is a 90 minute film which is usually just about a perfect run time but this is a case where I could have watched at least another half hour. Another minor problem is a scene in the middle where during a party, a nihilist (musician Will Oldham) regales the party-goers with his take on life, death, global warming and everything else. What he says is compelling in a way but it kind of stops the film dead because it's basically as if Lowery looks into the camera and goes "THIS IS WHAT MY FILM IS ABOUT!" It isn't a bad scene but I found it slightly overindulgent and unnecessary.
The fact that the scene stands out says a lot about how subtle the rest of the film is. Lowery is able to convey a quiet, stark and emotional message through long stares out of windows and deep embraces of lovers. A Ghost Story is sometimes silly, sometimes heartbreaking but wholly unique and stands out as one of the better films of 2017.
VERDICT
A Ghost Story is an experience in the truest sense of the word. In the dog days of summer where we're getting the dregs of what studios have to offer, I implore you to seek this one out if you can. Lowery's voice is a true original and one that I think we'll be seeing more of for years and years to come. Not a perfect film and one that will definitely test your patience, but there's nothing quite like it. If you can buy into the gimmick, you're in for a pretty rewarding 90 minutes.
7.75/10
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