Before you run out to the theater to see A Ghost Story, please note that this is not a horror movie. It is an “art film” experiment, but not a very good or engaging one.
Casey Affleck is “C” and he dies in a car crash right outside his house, leaving Rooney Mara's “M” to live alone in the home they shared together. But “C” comes back as a ghost – complete with white sheet and eye holes cut out. He goes home and watches “M”...and watches her...and watches her. Most significantly, he watches her eat a pie in one continues take. I was impressed but also disturbed that Mara did it without a glass of water.
At one point, our ghost hero communicates mentally with another ghost in the house next door. We get subtitles to understand their dull conversations.
Later, “C” has his breaking point and leaps off a tall building. Does that even count as suicide since he is already dead? Anywho, all this does is send him back in time, allowing him to watch his ghost self watch his living self. Mind blown? I bet Dieter from Sprockets would love this movie.
Time and time again writer and director David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Pete's Dragon) ponders on “existence” and shows us the monotony of being a ghost...and it's excruciating. Maybe this would have worked better as a short film.
