A Ghost Story (2017)

Rooney Mara is a good actress and, although I'm not a fan of her, I enjoy watching her so I decided to give A Ghost Story a try. That and the fact that people kept saying how good this movie is. 

C (Casey Affleck) is a struggling musician who lives with his wife M (Rooney Mara) in an old house that, according to C, has a history which is why he doesn't want to leave it while his wife wants to move out. One day C has a car accident, he dies and returns as a ghost wearing a sheet to reconnect with his wife.

I have to say that was a quite interesting premise and that it could have been a nice approach to themes of human existence and eternity. Unfortunately, there isn't a real story, no sort of development and that very little plot is stretched to the limit. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, for it to get better, but it didn't. Also, the story has such a slow pacing that not only ends up making the film tremendously dull and boring, but it feels like it goes on for an eternity. 

And having some scenes way, way longer than they should have been doesn't help either. I get that the scene where M eats an entire pie while her dead husband is watching the whole thing, probably as bored as I was, or when she stares at her husband under the sheet in the morgue are supposed to show how much she is suffering, or that at the beginning of the film when C and M kiss and cuddle is supposed to show how much they love each other, but 4-5 minutes (for each) is definitely too much for those scenes and I often found myself wondering whether I had the movie on pause. Not to mention how bland and emotionless those scenes are. They convey absolutely nothing for me.

A24

A Ghost Story doesn't even have characters. Okay, it does, but they are so thin, I couldn't help but feel disconnected from them. Director and writer David Lowery didn't even bother giving them proper names. 

The acting doesn't get any better either. Casey Affleck is wearing a sheet for most of the movie so it's impossible to even rate his performance. Roney Mara, on the other hand, gives such a dull, lifeless performance as she has a blank face from start to finish. She is probably trying to match her husband's unintentionally funny ghost, who knows. Also, the fact that there's barely a line of dialogue in this film sure doesn't work in their favour.