A Ghost Story — A Film Review
Originally published in the UP Cinema Arts Society Newsletter.
If you’ve ever been in love, A Ghost Story is a horror movie.
Written and directed by David Lowery, A Ghost Story stars Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara as husband and wife C and M. A musician, C composes a song dedicated to M, before a car crash unexpectedly takes his life. Returning as a ghost, C watches M place a note in a gap in the wall before leaving their home for good.
At its core, A Ghost Story is a story about time. C spends ages trying to pry M’s final note from its hiding place, so much so that time begins to pass him by unnoticed. Tenants move in and out, the house leveled, skyscrapers erected in its place, and the entire cycle taking him back to watch the first homesteaders set foot on the land. All the while, the haunting melody of his song for M follows C throughout time, just as her note seems to capture his imagination across the ages.
For an ageless ghost, time is a dimension that can be easily traveled, not just experienced in linear fashion. However, it is C’s love for his wife that transcends time and space, and keeps the ghost rooted to the home he shared with M. At the close of the film, C finally discovers M’s final note, as he apparates and moves on at long last.
For those who have known love, A Ghost Story is an unparalleled existential horror. The film is brutal in describing the futility of C’s search for closure. The notion of being a mere spectator to the dramatic destruction and erosion of the material signifiers of one’s love drives a cold jemmy of fear into my heart. In the same way that people are rarely active agents in choosing the occupants of their hearts, people are also powerless to watch their loved ones fade away — through death, through the dissolution of memory, and through the physical barriers of the world, be it time itself, or a hollow in the wall where a piece of paper snugly sits.
However, don’t mistake this film as a prognostication for all the ills of love. Remember, love is the same feeling that keeps C’s spirit alive and relentless in his search for M. It is comforting to see that long after M herself has (presumably) passed, her memory sustains C across his journey through the ages just to feel her warmth one last time before moving on for good.
The moral of the film, that which I have not seen told so elegantly, is that love is more than its signifiers. It is an austere memetic connection that defies space and time. A body may rot, a melody may be forgotten, and a home may be destroyed, but the ghosts of love follow us forever, and A Ghost Story says that this may not be so scary after all.