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A Ghost Story | 2017 | R | - 3.4.5

After dying, a man (Casey Affleck) returns to his home as a white sheeted ghost and he watches his wife (Rooney Mara) deal with her grief as he longs to somehow reach her. Unable to do so, he spots another ghost in a sheet in a neighboring house. Also with McColm Cephas Jr. and Kenneisha Thompson. Directed by David Lowery. Dead people covered by sheets communicate without words accompanied by subtitles. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish with no subtitles or translation. [1:32]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A husband and his wife sleep in bed and get up when they are startled by a sound (the man is shirtless and we see his bare chest, abdomen and back and the woman is shown wrapped in a sheet suggesting that she is nude and we see cleavage and upper chest); the two snuggle, hug and kiss until they fall asleep (we see part of her bare chest under his arm). A husband and his wife lie on a couch talking and caressing each other (we see her bare abdomen as her rubs it and he nuzzles her neck). Men and women kiss in a party scene and one couple enters a room and closes the door (sex is implied). A husband and his wife kiss. A man and a woman hug and kiss as a dead man covered by a sheet watches.
 A dead man lies on a gurney and we see his bare shoulders and upper chest. A woman's skirt lifts when she sits on the floor and we see her bare legs. A woman showers and we see her bare shoulders and arms through fogged glass. A woman wears a towel wrapped around her after showering and we see her upper chest, back and legs. Several women wear low-cut tops that reveal bare shoulders and cleavage at a party.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - We hear whooping reminiscent of Native American attack cries and then see a family (a man, a woman and two young children) lying dead with bloody arrow wounds; we watch as the bodies decay to skeletons.
 A dead man on a gurney covered by a sheet sits up and walks out of the hospital (no one notices or acknowledges his existence). A dead man covered by a sheet stands quietly in rooms in a house as he watches his wife. A dead man covered by a sheet walks toward a brightly lit opening in a wall that then closes and he walks away.
 A man is shown lying on a gurney in a hospital as a doctor pulls back a sheet to reveal his face (he has a gash on his forehead); the man's wife touches his hair and pulls the sheet back over his face to cover him, and then leaves the room. A man is shown motionless with his head against a steering wheel and we see blood on his forehead.
 A dead man covered by a sheet tips a photo off a piano and the glass breaks, then lifts a full glass of milk off a table and drops it onto the floor, and throws many dishes out of a cabinet and into a wall as a woman and her two young children scream and cower in the corner. A dead man covered by a sheet falls off the top of a high-rise building (we see the sheet wafting in the wind as he plummets). A young boy and a young girl are frightened when their bedroom closet opens (we see a dead man covered by a sheet in the closet; it is not clear if the children see this), and the boy points a toy ray gun at the open door and shoots (no discharge, just noise). A husband and his wife are startled by a sound in the night and get up to investigate (they find nothing). Several books are flung off a shelf and onto the floor. Lights buzz and flash in a few scenes. A light moves across walls and ceilings in a few scenes. A dead man covered by a sheet walks through walls in an office building.
 We see a house in rubble and a lizard scampers across the floor; a backhoe breaks down a wall and drives through and over it tearing the whole house down.
 Two dead people covered by sheets look at each other and communicate (without words) about what they are doing in a few scenes. A man talks about existence and the human desire to be remembered; he says, "We all die." A man and a woman argue about moving from a house and making decisions.
 After eating a pie a woman runs to the bathroom and vomits (we hear gagging but do not see goo).

LANGUAGE 5 - At least 1 F-word, 1 scatological term, exclamations (shoot), 2 religious exclamations (Holy [scatological term deleted].

SUBSTANCE USE - Several people drink alcohol at a party. Wafts of smoke are seen in a party scene but we do not see people smoking.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Death, love, grief, existence, legacy, time, hope, existence of God.

MESSAGE - Death is hard to deal with.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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