“We build our legacy piece by piece and maybe the whole world will remember you or maybe just a couple of people, but you do what you can to make sure you're still around after you're gone” (A Ghost Story). Arguably, the legacy we leave after we’re gone is just as important as the reputation we have when we are on Earth. This concept is shown profoundly in the 2017 film, A Ghost Story. The film stars Academy Award winner Casey Affleck as the protagonist ghost, from films such as Good Will Hunting and Manchester by the Sea. Opposite him, Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara plays his wife, who is credited with being in several films, her breakout role being The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Written and directed by American filmmaker David Lowery, the movie centers around a young couple who move into a house, when Affleck’s character tragically dies in a car accident just feet away from the home. It is not a thriller or a horror film at heart, but rather a film about an existential tragedy that occurs and the life that persists after one dies.

The entire concept behind A Ghost Story is ironic. Casey Affleck is an acclaimed actor with a recognizable face, who is actually covered with a white sheet to portray his ghostly figure for the majority of the film. This idea of showing a ghost in the afterlife with a white sheet is clever, because for many people it was the idea they had as children about what a ghost looked like. It makes the viewer wonder what ghosts really look like or if everyone perceives them differently. Another astute part of this film is that the audience does not know what any of the characters names are. Mara’s character is referred to as “M”, and  Affleck’s character is called “C”. This was not an accident, however. This had the purpose of giving the viewer the capacity to relate this story to their own lives and not have an attachment to any of the characters, because in this movie it is less about the characters and plot but more about the material given through ideas to convey a deeper message.

In this film, C’s ghost is a rather frightening being, not because of his physical form, but because throughout most of the movie he is lurking around with a devastating sense of loss and also frustration. The only thing he feels is grief after his death, and becomes a soul unhinged. The lack of dialogue can be slow paced and understandably hard for some viewers, but the movie itself asks for patience and time in order for a bigger story to be told. Credit is most certainly due to Affleck, who as an actor, is trained to use his face to portray emotion to the viewer. In this film, he is completely covered, and viewers have to rely solely on his body language. This may seem boring to some, or even hard to watch. However, this form of storytelling alone invokes little, simple emotions that leave room for the audience to attach their own ideas to how they would feel in his position.The most intriguing part of it is that rather than telling a story from M’s perspective, a human who experiences an unimaginable loss, it is told from the ghost’s point of view, who is experiencing loss in an entirely different way.

The viewer begins to get a background of the characters through flashbacks, detailing a love story between the two unnamed characters. C is a doting husband, who loves all things history related and producing his own music. He is a passionate man, and has a true lust for the simple things in life. In one flashback, M tells her husband that she cannot live in their small, middle-of-nowhere, Texas home anymore. It was a home that C particularly loved, because it had history attached to it. They fight over moving, and come to a standstill right before he dies. The most ironic part about this, is that while that home was a place that C felt attached to and loved while he was alive, he later came to despise it because it was the only place he would ever dwell again. Eventually, M moves out, unable to bear living in a home she never truly loved, without the person she loved. As the movie goes on, new people move into the house, which sets C off, because it was meant to be his home, with his wife. This concept shows that C can never leave the grieving phase as a ghost, because he will always be grieving the life he could have had in this house.

Filmmaker David Lowery, who directed A Ghost Story, uses this movie to influence viewers with a new way to think about time. C as a ghost portrays time in a much different way than he did as a human. In the opening scene of the film before C is a ghost, he and M are asleep and hear a noise from their living room. They wake up and see nothing. As the movie progresses, C is seen as a ghost in that same scene, this time watching his human self get out of bed and look around for the source of the noise which was actually his future ghost. This entire sequence is mind boggling and confusing while watching, but afterwards opens  thoughts and ideas about how time can be looked at when a person is gone from the busy, fast paced world. Time continues to warp throughout the film, showing the past when the home is nothing but an open field inhabited by migrants in the early 1800s, to the house later being destroyed and turned into a skyscraper in the future. This concept of time can overwhelm any viewer, but offers a refreshing vision on what time truly means and how as humans we do not often pay attention to it enough.

The most intense, important scene in the entire film is during a speech given by a random, free spirited, hippie-like man who has no real effect on the plot itself, but still sparks a deep sense of wonder in the watcher. This scene can test a viewer’s patience, and cause disagreement with some people’s ideas regarding life as a whole. However, it is a necessary scene to pay attention to, because it can offer new opinions that may have never crossed a person’s mind. It takes place in this same house, post M moving out, where a random group of people throw a party in this vacant home. C is present for the whole party, disgusted by the partiers trashing his once beloved home but begins to actually pay attention to these humans when the man, who is only listed as “Prognosticator” begins to talk. He speaks on how life is meaningless. All people, works of art, galaxies, inventions and atoms will eventually all be gone when the universe perishes. He goes on to discuss how acclaimed musician Beethoven’s contribution to art and the world at large, ultimately mean nothing because even though Beethoven’s work outlived him, eventually they too will not be remembered when the universe dies. This man is showing that by refusing any thoughts of future hope and humanity, all life has no meaning. Lowry did not include this speech to diss important figures of previous humanity or give little value to life at all. He put it in the movie to make spectators realize that certain things are inevitable in life, primarily the end of the universe that we as human beings are accustomed to. He is not saying that life is in fact meaningless in itself, but meaningless when looked at next to the context of time because there will never be enough time.  

The overall message in A Ghost Story is that people, already on Earth as living beings, should reflect on themselves and the world as they see it in that moment. The film itself causes the viewers to have more questions on what it means to live, rather than leaving them with resolution and answers clearly laid out as so many movies often do over and over again. The uneasiness it evokes is refreshing and striking in an exciting, unexplainable way. It arises a natural fear in watchers, making them wonder, what stays of us when we leave the world? And did it truly mean anything that we were ever there to begin with? A Ghost Story is a puzzle that does not want to be solved and deserves to be praised for everything that it has to offer.