'A Ghost Story' A Review

A Ghost Story is a pseudo-supernatural drama about a man who dies and lingers in the house he shared with his wife. C(Casey Affleck) and his wife M(Rooney Mara) share a small worn down home in a nameless suburb. C dies in a car accident outside of the house and returns from the morgue as a ghost that watches M as she deals with her grief and eventually moves out. The ghost of C stays with the house over the course of years and bears witness to the various inhabitants.

Mara puts in her same default performance we've seen from her numerous times. She is stoic, neutral, and reactive only. There is no doubt her looks are striking and that she has talent(The Social Network, Her) but it seems recently most directors use her as a cinematic model rather than an actual actor, which to be frank, is boring. Affleck is only actually seen for less then ten minutes and his time on screen is incredibly awkward, he does no acting to speak of just stumbles in frame and recites his lines, whenever he is called upon to be introspective(in this and in other films) he fails pretty badly. His talents fall more inline with bombast. The other cast members don't really have much to do save briefly glide in and out of scenes as the focus is more on the mood and tone. There is one notable monologue, which seemingly serves as the thesis of the film, delivered by William Oldham which is competently done but the content of which is insufferable collegiate existential gobbledygook.

The cinematography is sharp and interesting with a compelling score but unfortunately that's where the successes of the film begin and end. There are massive issues with the narrative and its pacing, starting relatively slow and then jumping years, decades, centuries(?) into the future and then back into the past. The film seems more concerned with doing these things rather than why they are being done and because of that the time machinations are virtually meaningless. This on top of the fact that the message of the film, bolstered by the aforementioned monologue, seems to be that nothing means anything, creation and ambition are futile, time is a prison, or some such other worthless ideas which every immature 19 year old convinced of their own non-existent intellectual prowess has after reading Notes From The Underground. The biggest problem is that writer/director David Lowery really wants to be a writer/director and he can't write. He has craft but, thus far, hasn't demonstrated any ability with narrative. Not to mention his repeated and inept cribbing of Terrence Malick which comes across as impotent rather than homage.

Derivative, clumsy, and juvenile. Worst of the year contender.

Don't See It.