‘Presence’ Movie Review: Steven Soderbergh’s Ghost Story Captivates With POV Camerawork
Photo from Vertical
From Jeremy Kibler
Not really since David Lowery’s beautifully spare masterwork A Ghost Story has a haunter been turned on its head. A ghost story but also a technical novelty and an intimate portrait of a family, director/cinematographer/editor Steven Soderbergh’s Presence unfolds entirely from the point-of-view of an apparition inside a family’ house. That’s the gimmick here, and it’s masterfully conceived as it is executed. Miraculously, the film plays out its conceit less as a gimmick and more as a visual storytelling device to explore loneliness and grief.
Always one to experiment with form (and pretend that he’s ready to retire), Soderbergh collaborates with veteran screenwriter David Koepp on this humdinger concept, and Presence instantly immerses the viewer. Before the Payne family even looks at their new Craftsman-style home with realtor Cece (Julia Fox), we realize an invisible presence is already there. The free-floating camera is the ghost, fluidly drifting into rooms of the house and quietly gliding up and down the stairs to eventually eavesdrop on the Payne family. It’s as if the ghost is trying to get its bearings. It gets scared, hiding in the closet. It gets angry, ripping down shelves and destroying a bedroom. It might even try to interfere and warn the family.
Through the spectral presence, we get acquainted with the family of four and their dynamics. The parents, Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan), are clearly different personality types with different parenting styles and a strained marriage. Rebekah is more demanding, a workaholic who dotes on one of her kids more than the other and is involved in some sort of workplace fraud. Chris (Chris Sullivan) is softer with a more reasonable approach in how he and his wife should help their daughter. The son, Tyler (newcomer Eddy Maday), is a popular varsity swimmer who’s the golden child. The daughter, Chloe (Callina Liang), is the more introspective one who’s understandably withdrawn after the recent death of her best friend, one of two high school girls who died by a drug overdose. Chloe is the only one who senses and actually witnesses a supernatural entity, but what does the ghost want?
Not unlike a Paranormal Activity movie, Presence is made up of extended single takes that just end and move on to the next one. It could potentially feel disjointed, but the structure is more of a naturalistic snapshot of lives in motion. Paired with Soderbergh’s cinematic approach, veteran screenwriter David Koepp’s script is smartly observed with economically well-drawn characters. Characters aren’t just clunkily explaining themselves in front of the viewer; instead, the camera is picking up information about these people in subtle ways as if we are seeing exactly what the ghost is seeing. The “Ghost POV” illusion is pulled off so exceptionally well that, in what is otherwise a technical marvel with elegant camerawork, Zack Ryan’s music score feels a little unnecessary, treacly even, as if trying to manipulate our emotions.
The four actors at the center make a convincing and compelling familial unit. Both Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan get powerful moments, but an excellent Callina Liang is most watchable, conveying Chloe’s sensitivity and isolation. One watches on edge as she puts her guard down for Ryan (a frightening West Mulholland), Tyler’s arrogant friend and one of the few others to enter the house.
Those going into Presence, expecting an arthouse Paranormal Activity, should probably watch without any preconceived notions. The film isn’t really seeking to scare, although it can be chilling in surprising ways. The climactic moment that we know is coming is telegraphed with a second scene involving a psychic (Natalie Woolams-Torres), but how it gets there is nonetheless alarmingly presented and then cathartic.
A hypnotic slow burn of a film, Presence captivates in how it’s able to sustain and transcend itself beyond being just a tight, ingenious exercise. At once stylistically playful and impressive, understatedly moving and quite human, this genre-flipping gem is sure to stick with you like a fly on the wall…or, a ghost hovering over you.
Rating: 4/5
Presence is currently in theaters.
