Grade: A-
Presence is a radical departure from what I thought it would be. It’s a haunted house/ghost story, but not in the ways it appears if you’ve seen the trailer – and it’s all the better for it. I will discuss it as much as possible without ruining surprises. You have until the end of this paragraph to bail. There’s a reason I put the grade on top, above the review.
The writers of so many ghost stories seem to have Main Character Syndrome about their main characters, reducing these spirits to one-dimensional beings waiting in the wings, existing solely to annoy, scare, or otherwise bother the living humans. Maybe the ghosts are confused, wondering why they’re there. Maybe, just maybe, they’re trying to warn, inform, or even help their human roommates. This thought has occurred to writer David Koepp. In fact, he has visited this territory before, with 1999’s thought-provoking Stir of Echoes.
The whole movie is from the point-of-view of the spirit – wandering a suburban house, sometimes making things happen. Director Steven Soderbergh operated the camera himself – shooting in long, continuous takes, often at eye level. The look of the wide-lens takes some getting used to, but it’s uncanny how it floats around the house without any visible bumps.
The house is empty until a family of four moves in. Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan (Toby from This Is Us) are the parents. The brother and sister, often at each other’s throats, are convincingly played by Eddy Maday and Callina Liang. The family, especially the daughter, has been grieving over something, the details of which will be unfolded for the viewer. A classmate befriends the son, and becomes the daughter’s boyfriend. The climax includes a payoff to an earlier line that is tragic and somehow touching. All the while, something or someone is watching.
Soderbergh’s long and varied career has seen him trying his hand at so many inventive techniques. It’s wonderful that he is still around – digging, exploring, experimenting, and seeing if he can change the way we look at movies. Presence expands the horizons of what we thought a film can do. It’s meaningful and fascinating, but not in any of the ways I expected. #notallghosts
Grade: A-
Film Reviews by Mark 
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