Review: A Ghost Story (2017)
Written and directed by David Lowery.
Happy New Year readers.
This is a very interesting film. I didn’t know what to expect from it, even after seeing the trailer. I was pleasantly surprised and moved by the film, its calm and brooding nature, and its static camera worked together to create a very profound and contemplative viewing experience. David Lowery is probably best known to you all from the film Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013), which also starred Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara. Lowery was also the editor for A Ghost Story. The film itself is rather on the short side for such a high concept, running only an hour and thirty two minuets. It is also shot in a very nostalgic looking aspect ratio of 1.33.
In an interview with The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/09/a-ghost-story-interview-david-lowery-casey-affleck-rooney-mara-pie ) Lowery talked about going forward with the concept, “It was such a high-wire concept. I went into it thinking it would be fun, a liberating bout of creative experimentation. But it was terrifying”. Understandable, this is a very unique concept that really asks viewers to let go of long held beliefs and conventions surrounding the ‘ghost story’ film. Lowery does not fall into any of the tropes, except maybe once when the ghost scares a new family who moved into ‘his’ house. He destroys plates, turns over a table, and throws dishes smashing into walls while the family cowers in fear. However this marks the first time in the film he does anything to the residents of the house. The moment becomes more of an outburst of anger and emotion at his situation than at the family. It’s a way for him to unleash bottled up anger and a chance to be acknowledged after living so long being silent and unknown. It also shows how Lowery uses the dual narrative going on in the scene. For one you have the family, their lives and their stories, which you do get a sense of during their short screen time, and then you have the Ghost’s story. Both of their situations are existing under the same roof, literally. They become innocent victims of his situation, his emotions, which he could not hold in any longer. The film itself is full of emotional outbursts which work to propel the characters and their stories forward. It’s interesting because our two main character’s M (Mara) and the Ghost, credited as C (Affleck), are often alone, yet there is this holding in of emotions until the point of breaking. Mara eats an entire chocolate pie and proceeds to cry and throw up. The Ghost terrifies the family, he interacts nostalgically with his piano, and Mara finally lets herself morn her husband as she breaks out in sobs in her bed. It’s this lack of a will to acknowledge the trauma and grief that leads to these outbursts. If we refuse to think about it, or if we make ourselves numb, then somehow, things will be easier to deal with. Lowery shows us the result of holding in our sadness in scenes like these. The silence in the film and the lack of character interactions allows us to take in all of these contemplative thoughts, and the actions are heightened, and in the end carry much more meaning because of these creative choices. When we are alone and suffering over anything in particular there often is not a clear internal narrative taking place. There are no grand musical scores, it’s just a human and their grief. Lowery encapsulates this hard reality in this film, we are pure observers of these characters and their respective grief.
One of my favorite scenes in the film is when the Ghost looks out the window of his house and sees another ghost in the adjacent house. They have a little conversation. The conversation itself is rather inconsequential, but on a grand scale, this shows that the Ghost is not alone, this transformation was not a mere freak occurrence that affected him, it is a whole other world of other ghosts. It’s impactful to me because in that moment you are taken out of the house and the scope of this narrative expands ten fold. You imagine all these other ghosts waiting in houses, stuck in empty buildings for so long that they forget who they are waiting for. This is world-building, I know, but Lowery managed to establish this world through a simple conversation of three or four lines, through a window, with no actual dialogue being spoken (it is all conveyed in subtitles). I also felt like this was the moment when the film really begins to ask you to think about these bigger questions, it starts to take you out of the house, and it lays the groundwork for the sweeping narrative that reveals itself later in the film. I call this a catalyst moment. A moment when the story expands beyond its previous scope, a moment where something clicks in the character(s) and in the audience.
The performances were understated and quiet, but excellent none the less. These kinds of roles are often the hardest to perform. The lack of dialogue forces you to convey your character through the body, the movements, and through the face. Mara and Affleck do very well with the minimalist material. Affleck had the added challenge of getting his emotions across through a ghost costume, and Mara (now famously) had to eat an entire chocolate pie. Lowery makes the silence very effective in his usage of close ups of Mara, enabling us to see her eyes and small changes in her face. Lowery also held the camera on his actors for very long periods of time, the film is full of very long and often static shots. As someone who loves the work of Antonioni, I love the long take, but I also understand that it must be used with purpose. Lowery does this, but the long shots also serve to show space (the confines of the house), and emptiness. The physical emptiness conveyed by the shot length and camera placement translates into the feeling of emotional loneliness. These long shots are dynamic and do a few choice things in each take. Another good example of this is when we see Mara eating the pie and the Ghost stands by the wayside and watches her. We watch this long take, she is on the floor and he is standing up and away from her (interesting blocking), and all we have to go off of is the internal emotions of the couple. The scene has emotional dynamic and intensity even though not a single word is spoken. Lowery holds the take so long so we can absorb all of this.
The music (http://www.indiewire.com/2017/07/a-ghost-story-soundtrack-listen-daniel-hart-score-spotify-1201854396/) in the film is also really a thing of beauty. Daniel Hart composed the soundtrack for the film, he also worked with Lowery on Pete’s Dragon (2016) and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. It is a really fresh combination of modern, electronic, lyrical, and a dash of classical compilations. The score is both uplifting and haunting. Pieces like Secrets in the Wall are sweet and melancholic, while Safe Safe Safe is very fresh sounding and modern (a favorite of mine in the film). Thesaurus Tuus is more on the haunting and moody side, but is still beautiful none the less. I would highly recommend checking out the vocal pieces of the score outside of the film, they are very enjoyable and stand on their own as really great pieces of music. A film like this needs a very engaging and unique score, because there is a lot of silence in the film. There is a lot of dead air that needs filling. Hart’s score helps set the tone in long moments of silence, the music gives a voice to the Ghost when he cannot speak himself, we understand his music to be his emotions turned outward. The music takes on another dimension in the film because C is a composer and we listen to a piece of his that he made before his death. We hear that piece and understand all the other music in the film is a reflection of his lyrical style. The music is very much his. This makes it feel more significant and personal to both the audience and to the Ghost. Lowery motivated the music choices by incorporating the music as an aspect of C’s character. I though it really enhanced the film, and it allowed the music to take on a more emotional meaning.
I have very few problems with this film, but I did feel it fell short in a two areas. I was rather frustrated by the lack of background or emotional understanding provided to us about the main couple M and C.
I felt this to be a problem because the film itself is about grief, loss, and the idea of not having closure. We are not really given much information about their marriage. We understand on a basic level that they love each other, we see that (like all couples) they were not perfect, but are given little else. I wanted to see why the grief is so strong that he came back as a ghost to seek closure, I wanted to more fully feel her sadness over his loss. I know we can project and assume their love for one another, but in this case where emotion is such a motivating factor for the story, I needed more. I also felt like the film would have been enhanced if it were a bit longer. When I say longer I mean like a two or three minuets. As a filmmaker myself I know lot of things can be conveyed in just a few choice moments. I feel like this film could have used a couple more of those. The scenes where the ghost is walking around the office building for example, could have used a bit of humanizing. We walk through rather numb, and quickly move onto the next thing. So much of the power of this film relies on the human emotion, the human experience, this scene needed to be humanized. When we go back in time, the scene with the young child is very emotional and fleshed out, I wanted to see the world of the future treated with as much care as that of the past.
I cannot wait to see what Lowery has to offer us next. I was really excited by this film. As an experimental filmmaker and a proponent for the creation of more unique narratives, this film fulfilled a need in me that rarely gets filled, even from the indie circuit. I really respect a director who understands the power of understated images and stories. The power of the image is so strong when harnessed properly and Lowery clearly understands this. It’s films like this, ones that are slow and contemplative, that really get to the core of humanity. There’s such a beauty and art to showing human emotion. A Ghost Story might seem like an odd film to exemplify this idea, I agree with you, but it does.
