A Ghost Story is devastating in it’s search for meaningMongrel/A24
If you've ever loved anyone or anything, A Ghost Story is going to break your heart. It is devastating – and devastatingly good.
Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara play an unnamed married couple living in a rundown suburban home. She wants to move to somewhere shiny and new; he wants to stay because of all the memories in the house.
When he unexpectedly dies, he rises from the morgue, covered in a white sheet, and walks home, where he watches his wife grieve. Unable to communicate, he looks on, haunting and haunted, as new people come and go through the house.
Profoundly imbued with nostalgia, loss, sadness and the need to find meaning, the film – a hit at the Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered earlier this year – is often as uncomfortable as it is stirring, particularly given its many uninterrupted long takes.
While it's informed by classic horror movies – especially Poltergeist – writer-director David Lowery's vision offers a singular experience that can't be properly described in words, much like love itself.
Dave McGinn