'A Ghost Story': A Transcendental, One-of-a-Kind Experience

"A Ghost Story" is a wonderfully unconventional drama about a loving young couple (Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara) torn apart by tragedy—and the transition of Affleck’s character into a ghostly apparition left to observe the world as it moves forward without him.

It’s an unusual premise, employing a simplistic, almost cartoonish specter of a man-under-a-bedsheet (large black eyes and all), and yet the story plays out as a surreal, often bittersweet examination of existence and the passage of time. Replete with pathos, offbeat moments of levity (including an amazing party-scene soliloquy by Will Oldham), and buoyant transcendence, it's a stunningly affecting formulation.

Remarkably slow-moving in its early goings, it’s the type of film you have to stick with through gradual acceleration and unexpected developments to earn the story’s ultimate payoff. Unlike anything you’ve ever seen before—writer/director David Lowery ("Ain't Them Bodies Saints"m "Pete's Dragon") has crafted something excitingly original with this one. It really holds onto its own abstract logic and delivers something utterly refreshing and imaginative.

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