I’m ready to declare 2017 the year of the art house ghost
movie. Both Oliver Assayas’ “Personal Shopper” and now David Lowery’s “A Ghost
Story” are mundane, quietly eerie supernatural dramas about grappling with
grief and finding closure. “Personal Shopper,” which came out in March, starred
Kristen Stewart as an amateur medium desperately trying to make contact with
the spirit of her recently deceased twin brother. Meanwhile, “A Ghost Story” takes
the point of view of a grieving ghost stuck in a purgatorial state.
That ghost is/was C, (Casey Affleck) a musician who died in
a sudden car accident. After his widow M (Rooney Mara) goes to identify his
body at the morgue, the ghost…wakes up. He stands up and proceeds to walk out
of the room with a white sheet still covering him. Out in the hallway, a portal
containing a blinding white light materializes in front of him, presumably a
door to the afterlife. However C chooses not to go and instead walks across
roads and fields, back to his suburban house to see his grieving wife. What
does he do? Does he try to make contact with her? Does he help her make
pottery? No, he just watches her, still dawning that white bed sheet, now with
a pair of eyeholes, reminiscent of a child’s Halloween costume. This low-tech
costume choice is oddly effective--creepy, mysterious and refreshing.
Of the two films, “A Ghost Story” is more experimental and
abstract. Aside from containing very little plot and action, it’s primarily
composed of lengthy single take shots that sometimes go on for five to seven
minutes. This deliberate visual style mimics C’s onscreen behavior and desires.
He wants to spend as much time as he can with M before he passes on. He wants
to cherish every moment, every movement and every grief inspired breakdown. There’s
a palpable, aching feeling of longing and sorrow pulsing through these lengthy
scenes.
Admittedly, these scenes can be frustrating at times. There’s
a much talked about scene involving M grief eating an entire pie while C
watches from beyond that’s kind of painful to sit through. It’s moving and
Mara’s performance is subtly devastating but it’s also a…really really long
scene of a woman eating an entire pie. A really
long scene. I admit I zoned out during the picture a few times. “A Ghost Story”
may be the longest hour and twenty-seven minute movie I’ve ever seen.
“A Ghost Story” can be difficult to endure but after the
first thirty minutes or so, the movie really picks up steam. Time itself accelerates,
while space rapidly changes shape. Days, years, decades, centuries pass before
our eyes in a matter of seconds. Before you even have a chance to blink, a
small suburban house materializes into a mighty skyscraper. It’s exhilarating
and beautiful. “A Ghost Story” goes from being a claustrophobic film about a
wandering soul (yanked out of his body too soon) trying to find closure with
his beloved, to a more expansive, ambitious affair. It morphs into a lyrical
mediation on the fluidity of time, the nature of legacy, the significance a
certain place (a cherished family home, a plot of land) can hold for someone,
the vastness of the universe and our minuscule place in it. Lowery manages to
pack quite a bit into such a brief run time.
The film becomes one long, surreal, mind-bending montage.
Time keeps pushing forward until suddenly it stops and starts over from the
beginning, taking our white sheet-wearing friend with it like a current pushing
a stick down a river. If you were bored and frustrated with the film before,
you won’t be able to take your eyes off it now. “A Ghost Story” can be rough
going, especially at the beginning but once it changes into this bigger, more
thought provoking film, it’s endlessly absorbing.
B
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