‘A Ghost Story’ is a haunting, rewarding watch
“A Ghost Story” may be the ultimate litmus test of where you fall on the line between artistic merit and laughable pretension.
In fact, you can look to one scene in David Lowery’s film, which the title describes somewhat accurately, to help you make up your mind — although, as you’ll see, I’m going to try to convince you to see it. As meditations on the banality and helplessness of grieving go, the movie makes a powerful statement.
It’s also got a ghost in an old-timey Halloween-costume-looking sheet with eyeholes cut out. Never accuse Lowery of making the expected choices.
But first, before we get to the scene in question, a little background. “A Ghost Story” stars Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara as a couple living in a home where he works as a musician (a frustrated musician, from the looks of it), while she goes off to an unnamed job every day. Lowery has never been a filmmaker generous with details — this was true in the terrific “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” which also starred Affleck and Mara — but he offers even fewer here.
They seem in love but maybe not that happy. Or at least frustrated. And then one day Lowery’s camera floats to the outside of the house, and there is C (the only designation for Affleck’s character; Mara is “M”), in a car accident, dead. M goes to the morgue and identifies his body and leaves. But Lowery holds the shot, holds it, waiting … and then the sheet-covered body rises.
And off he goes. M wanders from the morgue to their home — a long-range shot of him trudging through a giant field, a small little sheet-covered corpse trying to find his way home — is surprisingly moving.
Once C is home, he stays there, lurking in corners, presumably peering through those eyeholes, watching M night from time to time). It’s more a story about time and how it passes, no matter what goes on in our lives. M eventually leaves the house, and other families move in and out. Eventually hipsters have a big party, while Will Oldham (identified as “Prognosticator” in the credits) goes on at great length about the impermanence of existence — as C stands in the corner, watching.
We also learn that, while C seems rooted in this one spot, he can travel through time, back to before the house existed (in an unexpected scene), on through the future, to when the property changes hands and features.
So why watch? Because if you let it be, the film is quite moving. There’s a funny bit with a ghost next door (watch the credits for the surprising portrayal) with whom C can communicate through subtitles. (Don’t ask. Just go with it.) This ghost is waiting for someone, it tells C. Who? “I don’t remember.”
Later we see the neighbor ghost standing in rubble. C looks out the window and gets a plaintive reply: “I don’t think they’re coming.”
These moments add up. They are not going to convince those who aren’t willing to search for meaning in them. But for those who do, “A Ghost Story” offers plenty of rewards. a brush with absinthe leads to Sasha doing bizarre things with a floor lamp she mistakes for William Levy (there is no shortage of celebrity cameos). There’s also public urination (gross, but funny), hookups, a fleabag motel, a potential suitor (Larenz Tate) and fullfrontal male nudity. The film definitely earns its R rating.
Director Malcolm D. Lee (”The Best Man” films) has a firm handle on grossout humor and boisterous slapstick. He’s also good at creating a sense of warmth and camaraderie among the characters; you get the sense that these women really like each other.
The movie is less effective when it goes for the heart. Ryan is forced to deliver a climactic speech about empowering women that just doesn’t work; it’s too long and you can feel the film deflate as she talks. We don’t need to hear about the bonds between strong women — we’ve just watched them in action for two hours.