A Ghost Story(2017)

R
1h 32m

Release Date: Jul 7, 2017 | Limited

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.

Releases

Original Release | Jul 7, 2017

Box Office

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$104,030
Total US & Canada:
$1,596,371
Total International
$355,312
Total Worldwide:
$1,951,683

Director & Top Cast

David Lowery
Director

Casey Affleck
C

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Summaries

Plot Summary

A musician lives with his wife in a small house in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She wants to move, but he does not. One night, they hear a bang on their piano but cannot find the cause.The man is killed in a car accident. At the hospital, his wife views his body and covers it with a sheet. The man awakens as a ghost covered in the sheet, and wanders through the hospital, invisible. He comes to a door of light, but turns away, and it closes. He returns to his house and watches his wife grieve over days and weeks. He sees another ghost inside the house next door; wordlessly, the ghost tells him that she is waiting for someone, but cannot remember who.When the wife comes home with a man, the ghost hurls books from the shelf and turns lights on and off. The wife listens to a song written by the man when he was alive. She decides to move out; before she leaves, she writes a note and hides it in a gap in a wall. The ghost picks at the wall but cannot retrieve the note.A family moves in. The ghost watches them eat dinner, play piano, and celebrate Christmas. The children are bothered by his presence, and the family move out after he hurls plates from the kitchen cabinet. At a party thrown by the next occupants, the ghost listens to a man describe how humans try to create a legacy, but everything is ultimately destroyed. The partygoers notice the lights flicker.The house becomes abandoned and derelict. As the ghost manages to remove a piece of the wall concealing the note, bulldozers level it and the house next door. The second ghost says she no longer thinks whoever she is waiting for is coming, and vanishes.The man's ghost watches as a skyscraper is built on the land. On the roof, he views a futuristic cityscape. He jumps from the edge and is transported to the 19th century, where a family of settlers are building a house. He watches as the family's young daughter writes a note and hides it under a rock. After the family is killed by Native Americans, the ghost watches the daughter become a skeleton enveloped by grass.Decades later, the ghost watches as his past self and wife move into the house. They argue about moving out. After the man tells his wife that he is ready to move out, the ghost sits at the piano, striking the keys and causing the noise that wakes the couple. As the wife moves out, the ghost sees his earlier ghost watching her leave. He manages to retrieve the note from the wall, reads it, and vanishes.

Storyline

Resonating with vibrant memories and silent echoes of a shared life, the old house is somehow connected to "C", a sensitive composer who is hesitant of leaving it, while his loving wife "M", on the other hand, is keen on moving out, having an indecipherable but grim premonition of danger. Sadly, disaster soon strikes, and C's untethered spectre which detaches from the lifeless body, rises from the mortician's table, and in a swift decision, decides to linger in this dimension to faithfully follow the grieving M back to the old house. As silent as a shadow and as invisible as the air, C's unappeasable phantom observes M's denial and depression gradually turn to acceptance and even hope, as time unravels, moving forward through the decades. In this earth, man struggles to leave his legacy behind. Is this the way to immortality? — Nick Riganas A musician lives with his wife in a small house in Dallas, Texas. She wants to move, but he does not. One night, they hear a bang on their piano but cannot find the cause. The husband is killed in a car accident in front of their house. At the hospital, his wife views his body and covers it with a sheet. The man awakens as a ghost covered in the sheet, and wanders through the hospital, invisible. He comes to a door of light, but turns away, and it closes. He returns to his house and watches his wife grieve as time passes. He sees another sheet-ed ghost inside the house next door; wordlessly, the ghost tells him that she is waiting for someone, but cannot remember who.. Recently deceased, a white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife, only to find that in his spectral state he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away. — yusufpiskin