Haunts with style

MOVIE: A Ghost Story STARRING: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara RATING: M REVIEWER: Leigh Paatsch

JUST six months after his Best Actor triumph for Manchester by the Sea, Casey Affleck spends his latest movie, A Ghost Story, underneath a white sheet with two spooky eyeholes cut out of it.

However, such is the superlative form in which the actor finds himself currently, Affleck miraculously lifts his performance as a mournful linen-clad spectre way above that of a nutty novelty.

Affleck plays an unnamed man whose life has been tragically cut short by a car accident. Now an afterlife without end expands and contracts all around him, both an infinite void and a claustrophobic prison.

His former home is now a paranormal observation deck from which he must watch the world - and his beloved wife (Rooney Mara) - go on without him.

Though some scenes transmit signs of activity so faint the viewer could be forgiven for wondering if anything is happening at all, a genuinely haunting and serenely powerful sense of sadness continues to build throughout.

However, A Ghost Story is not out to depress or disillusion anyone in any way.

While a steady flow of utter helplessness and heartbreak cascades through this unusually affecting movie, so too do warm currents of humour and hope.