On a warm summer night under a clear sky we sit by the crackling of a fire. These nights are made for things; things like roasting marshmallows and of course ghost stories. Everyone takes a turn telling a story, there is the one about the guy with the hook who knows what you did last summer or the one where you get strange calls only to find out they are coming from inside the house. Common are stories such as these, but there is always room for a unique kind of tale involving a ghost.
This story is about a man (Casey Affleck) and a woman (Rooney Mara) who live in a house that’s pretty isolated. Together they do non-exciting things like most couples that live in the same house. Things like talk about a piano being in tune or wanting to move when one wants to stay.That changes when the man is involved in an accident that he doesn’t survive from. The woman goes through the stages of grief, but unbeknownst to her she is not alone. The man did not leave this earth; instead he chose to return to the house he shared with the woman just to be close her again. As she leaves the house, the man is trapped there, where time passes by as he searches for the moment he can let go and move beyond this world.
Ok so maybe this kind of ghost story is not the type that will have you screaming, but more likely to make you say, “That’s it?” With a title like “A Ghost Story” you might go in thinking one thing but leaving with a totally different thought. David Lowery’s new film is not made to make you fear anything other than your own mortality. Lowery doesn’t use many words to deliver this message except one scene that the message of the film is laid out clearly for you. Lowery instead replaces words with silence and thought provoking images that truly make you believe a picture really is worth a thousand words. This film isn’t for everyone, but there is a beauty this film possesses that some will really appreciate. Having Affleck and Mara in this film means little, because it is not the actors that matters as the film pushes forward no matter who fills the house as there is just one constant, that being the ghost. Films like this show how like all kinds of art, everything is not always intended for the masses. “A Ghost Story” is one of those films and for those who see it revel in its beauty and ponder the questions it asks.
