Review of A Ghost Story (2017) by Jonathan B — 13 Dec 2017

I kid you not, there is a scene in this movie where Rooney Mara does nothing but sit on the floor and eat a pie and it is one of the most heart-breaking things I've ever seen on the screen. It is also the film that puts star Casey Afflek under a bedsheet and gives him nothing to say for most of the scenes he is in, yet as the titular "Ghost", this Scooby Doo spectral image is highly effective.

In terms of plot, we have been here before in everything from Blythe Spirit to Truly Madly Deeply to Ghost where on partner in a couple comes back from the dead to haunt their Earthly home. However, seldom has such a contrivance been so well executed and affecting.

The quality of the directing by David Lowery is masterful and he imbues the displaced spirit of Afflek with a mournful, harrowing quality that is difficult to pin down. The slow and intelligent plot plays out with few words, the most powerful scene on the meaning of life is told during a party when one of the partygoers muses on the meaning of creation in one of those rambling, slightly drunken monologues we've all had in the wee, small hours.

Backed up by a terrific musical score, the art house production will not be for everyone but I suspect that this will be one of those films that will linger long in the memory and almost literally come back to haunt the viewer many times.