What happens to us when we’re dead and buried? That’s one of the questions David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon) tries to answer in A Ghost Story, which follows the titular spook as he struggles to move on from his previous life.
C (Casey Affleck) and R (Rooney Mara) live together in a house off the beaten path. After hearing strange noises, they decide it’s time to move to the city, but before they can C is involved in a fatal car accident. C suddenly wakes up in the hospital, covered in a white sheet with black eye-holes.
No one can see him as he starts to walk around the building, and soon he is drawn back to the home he and his wife lived in. There he watches as life passes by, as his widow moves on with her life – and moves out. It’s an oddly romantic film. Plagued with nostalgia in death as he was in life, Affleck’s character can’t help but remain attached to the existence he had before.
The chemistry between Affleck and Mara is undeniable, they’re such a natural couple and both charismatic in their own way, but it’s Affleck who steals the show. Even though he wears a sheet over his head for most of the film, his performance as the bereft ghost is amazing, as he expresses his emotions through the way he moves and reacts to the changes around him. His time works differently to ours, and through his journey towards acceptance we get to see the world change around him.
The way Lowery presents time and grief – in such an original and captivating way – is what makes this film so intriguing. This is a story that, like its lead character, will haunt you long after it’s over. It’s a different kind of ghost story, and that’s why it works so well. Reviewed by Roxy Simons
INFO
Release: 15 January 2018
From: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Age Rating: 12
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