“I get that some films are more art than entertainment. In a perfect world, we’d get a solid mix of both in each movie that comes out of Hollywood, but the truth is some films are always gonna be firmly one or the other. And that’s okay, except that I much prefer films that lean towards entertainment. So while I can enjoy a movie with bad artistic quality, but high entertainment value, it’s very difficult to enjoy a movie with high artistic quality but low entertainment value. Such was the plight of A Ghost Story.
The film is a reflection on loss and grief, and it’s illustrated by a ghost that looms around the home he once inhabited with his girlfriend/wife/lover/unclear. The couple is played by Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, and the ghost is depicted like a kid in a bad Halloween costume: Casey Affleck covered in a sheet with eyeholes. The image was really cool, so that was enough to peak my interest. However, the movie really is just ghost Affleck wandering around observing for about 80% of the movie. And during much of that, there’s little to observe.
I can kinda get the statement that was trying to be made, and the themes that were being explored. But given the minimal action, I think it might have best worked as a short instead of a full feature, because it ended up boring as hell. For example, there’s one scene that’s already going down in infamy where grief stricken Rooney eats an entire pie for several minutes while ghost Affleck just looks on. I found a great article that aggregates the responses from various critics to that five minute segment of the movie. Basically the conclusion I’ve drawn is that your reaction to that scene is indicative of your reaction to the whole film. For me, that’s something like “”I sorta get it, but did we have to?””
I hate knocking down a film that has some serious artistic value, but if all I want is to fall asleep and/or get outta there, then was the art worth enduring?
A Ghost Story – \m/ \n”