Studio: Neon
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: David Koepp
Producer: Julie M. Anderson, Ken Meyer
Stars: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, Julia Fox
Review Score:
Summary:
A dysfunctional family discovers their new home may be haunted by a supernatural spirit with a mysterious purpose.
Review:
Some call it “high concept.” Others call it “a gimmick.” Whatever words anyone chooses, the premise pushing “Presence” is that it is shot with a first-person camera meant to present the entire story from the POV of a ghost haunting a suburban home.
The film also comes from director Steven Soderbergh, an auteur known for alternating between big studio blockbusters including “Ocean’s Eleven” and inventive indies like the shot-on-an-iPhone thriller “Unsane”. By virtue of its offbeat conceit, “Presence” clearly belongs in that latter grouping of niche projects better suited for an arthouse than a cineplex.
Several years ago, my sister, who adamantly believes in ghosts, posted an old photo to Facebook featuring a next-door neighbor having a party for his fifth birthday in our childhood home. She was convinced a spot shaped like an upside-down teardrop indicated a spectral figure standing behind the birthday boy. Using visual evidence, I pointed out the lighting fixture above our dining room table had tear-shaped bulbs, which would of course burn an upside-down image when inverted on a film negative, something she should have known considering she went to the same school for media studies that I did.
Logic met deaf ears, which was not entirely unexpected. Additional people willfully scrolled right by my rational explanation to post comments along the lines of “OMG!” and “So spooky!” To some, it seemingly makes sense to believe a dot in a picture must be a supernatural entity from an ethereal realm, rather than a run-of-the-mill lens flare.
Over a phone call months later, I brought up that Facebook exchange and tried to further break through my sister’s stubborn insistence by asking, “Why would you even want to believe that hazy speck is a ghost?” How depressing is it to think that the afterlife isn’t the utopian paradise religion promises us, but instead, you’re eternally stuck in some house in Cleveland, Ohio, watching kindergartners stuff cake in their faces, and flicking light switches on and off to scare them is your only form of entertainment? That’s a fate worse than Hell.
“Presence” illustrates what I’m talking about: the dreadful dullness a stranded spirit would actually encounter while peacefully haunting a normal house. It wouldn’t be flying pigs, bleeding walls, and fly-infested windows. It would be the monotony of watching an ordinary family trudge through the same everyday occurrences virtually everyone goes through.
After Rebekah and Chris move into a new home with their teenage children Tyler and Chloe, a crew of contractors comes in to paint the walls. Chloe mourns the recent loss of her best friend Nadia, whose death hit so hard, Chris wonders if he and Rebekah should hire a therapist. Privately, Chris consults an attorney to gauge how much he might be culpable if his wife’s problematic business affairs land the couple in hot water. They’re already contemplating separation, partly because Chris can’t stand how Rebekah favors Tyler, who worries his sister’s sorrowful behavior could affect his status as a promising swimmer while he’s trying to win new friends at school.
Are you intrigued by the possibilities of legal trouble, sibling rivalry, high school social circles, and divorce yet? Comparatively, watching a five-year-old’s birthday party suddenly doesn’t sound half bad.
Without having the logline beforehand, you wouldn’t know the camera’s perspective came from a ghost’s eyes until the presence invisibly moves Chloe’s books off her bed while she showers. Before this mark almost 15 minutes into the film, and for many more minutes afterward, “Presence” plays similarly to a routine domestic soap opera, except without any dramatized excitement like a grave medical emergency, unexpected appearance by a complicated character, or anything else to make basic dysfunction dynamics seem cinematic.
“Presence’s” gimmick might be considered high concept, but the story it services delivers low impact. Movie ghosts don’t have to cause spectacular chaos by tormenting residents with terrifying visions, igniting infernos, or flinging heavy objects at their heads. They do have to take more action than toppling trophies off one shelf and knocking clothes off another to populate their POV with sights worth seeing, and to create a captivating mystery. Although it’s eventually revealed to have a virtuous objective, this poltergeist takes a minimalist approach to haunting, turning “Presence” into a movie haunted by a vacancy for invested suspense.
Soderbergh disciples salivate over any attempt of his to tell a familiar tale in a unique way, but this filmmaking experiment concludes without proving any particular hypothesis. Reportedly shot in only 11 days, the movie shows more signs of being a half-baked idea than a fully formed feature. Admirable in intent, yet underwhelming in execution, “Presence” needs a richer narrative than the smattering of minor moments it stitches into a small-stakes fable.
Review Score: 50
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