A Ghost Story (2017)

Director: David Lowery

Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara

In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss, and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife.

Oh, wow, I’m so glad I decided to watch this film. The cinematography is exquisite, with wide angle shots. Even the rooms are spacious and open, as if depicting emptiness – the kind of emptiness one feels having lost a loved one. The film has a lot of quiet moments, yet it works so incredibly well. There’s a 5-minute scene of the wife just sitting eating a pie while the ghost stands watching her motionless. It was so effective! Some seemingly insignificant scenes meant so much, especially from a loving couple’s perspective. The scene where the wife sits listening to her husband’s song was especially powerful.

This is a uniquely different film. It is a beautifully, amazingly well shot film. It was so effectively portrayed how time is irrelevant to the ghost. The film spans decades, although to the ghost it must seem like days. It was so sad, actually, but insanely well done. There’s hardly any dialogue in the entire film, and then one guy comes along and makes up for lost dialogue, but it was interesting and oh-so-relevant. This is not just a movie; it is a movie experience!

The film won a number of awards, including Best Editing, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Top Ten Films of the Year.