Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara have just bought a nice house. It’s a two-bedroom bungalow with charm, warmth and a resident ghost, but it needs some work. Casey has a car accident and dies. We know this as he’s laid out on a morgue slab covered by a sheet. Then he gets up and walks around under a sheet. Yep, in this day of CGI and creative solutions, writer-director John Dewer has gone back to basics. A sheet. With two holes in it. For the eyes. A sheet. Casper is scarier.
Not that it’s a horror movie. It dwells on grieving as Casey the friendly ghost hangs around, not doing much and saying less. He has a few mind communications with another ghost, but that’s about it. Mara has just as much dialogue. But she realises how silly this all is and sells the house. Our ghost sticks around and plays with time.
John Dewer has snagged himself a casting coup with Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara as his leads. Rooney has her moments and gets to convey her grief in beautifully subtle ways. But Casey doesn’t. It’s hard to show anything under a sheet. And that’s why this movie fails me.Â
Here we have Rooney hoeing into some pie soon after the accident. You can feel her grief; see it in the way she attacks it, the flex of her jaw. But it goes for over 20 minutes, and the main element ruining this scene is… the silly bloke with a sheet in the corner.Â
Dewer also makes some other poor choices. It’s shot at 4:3 ratio for no discernible reason as it’s set in modern day. And I don’t mind long moody shots. But I want to see something in them. Not a bloke under a sheet.Â
Even at 90 minutes that covers a century this felt long. It’s hard to lose yourself when you’ve been asked to accept anything this absurd, that isn’t quite absurdist.Â
Con’s Score: 2 Caspers
Con Nats – On The Town
