Ghost Story
Watching someone eat pie for over five minutes made me cry.
Have you ever tried to sit in complete silence for ten minutes? No phone, watch, book, TV, or distraction. Just sit for ten minutes and do nothing. It can be relaxing, unsettling, somewhere in between, or a back and forth. We get so used to go-go-go, constant stimulation, or stress. Busyness. So to just stop and be stationary for any length of time can feel unnatural like you are wasting it or should be doing something or bored. That uneasy feeling is utilized in Ghost Story by David Lowery, starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara. The film uses our predisposition toward constant distraction in life as well as our expectations in films to force us to sit and think about time.
Affleck and Mara are a married couple living in the suburbs. They have a simple and happy life. The wife tells her husband about moving a lot as a child and a tradition she holds of hiding notes in all the houses she lived in. There are a few bumps in the night but mostly it is a normal life until the husband dies in a sudden and uniquely shot car accident. The audience watches as the husband returns as a ghost—the stereotypical white sheet with eyes—and how the wife mourns. The film is presented with an aspect ration that is reminiscent of a handheld, home video, Super 8 kind of video. So it feels like we are watching home videos, private moments, and personal memories. There are extremely long takes—like the pie-eating scene—that go against how we are used to movies being cut—fast-paced or maybe a minute-long at most. Like I said, in these long takes, you are forced to sit and wonder “why am I still watching this same thing” but after a while you get used to it and are prepared to see what Lowery is saying.
The pie-eating scene occurs when the wife gets home from the funeral, and she has nothing to do so she eats, and then she still has nothing to do so she keeps eating. At first, it’s a little weird to watch someone eat for that long, but then you start to understand why. You are seeing the passage of time, slow and constant. She is just sad. Nothing ahead. All she has is the choice to keep eating to stay busy. And it’s a very somber and honest look at their mourning process.
As a ghost, time leaps back and forth and around. He observes the passage of what will happen and what came before. There are so many scenes that beg to be analyzed!
One of my favorite aspects is the simple presentation of the ghosts. A single white sheet with two dark holes for eyes. Affleck turns in a surprisingly engaging performance hidden under a sheet. That is impressive! To convey so much emotion—longing, anger, departure—just through voiceless movement. There are other ghosts that Affleck interacts with. They are all in a similar state of wandering and waiting. Even Affleck’s ghost has a final mission, something he is looking for, that remains ambiguous. He searches all of the time for the smallest connection to his wife. One other ghost finally “lets go” when they realize their people are gone from the house. Affleck’s ghost has to find a note written by his wife. We are not told what the note says, but it is liberating enough to allow him to rest.
The film is exceptional. It takes the ghost story tropes and turns them. Instead of scary scenes of possession, it uses a ghost to ask questions about time, what it would be like to linger, and what people want while they are here.
