by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, Julia Fox
Intro:
… an original and striking take on the haunted house genre …
Retirement is a funny state of being and seems to mean different things to different people. The average retiree might look forward to a day of pottering around the garden, doing the crossword with a tartan blanket across their knees and perhaps visiting Shirl next door to see how her roses are getting on after the recent aphid infestation. In the case of director Steven Soderbergh – who allegedly retired from filmmaking in 2013 – it seems to mean working nonstop, creating ten feature films and one TV show! Steven, you might want to double check the definition of the word “retirement”, mate.
His latest effort, Presence, is an original and striking take on the haunted house genre that is likely to please those who meet it halfway.
Presence is the story of a family of four. There’s mother Rebecca (Lucy Liu), father Chris (Chris Sullivan), son Tyler (Eddy Maday) and daughter Chloe (Callina Liang). All families have their ups and downs, and in this family’s case, things are trending southward. The parents are fighting, the siblings barely tolerate one another and the new house they’ve just moved into appears to contain an unseen but semi-felt (at least by Chloe) presence. But is this spooky tenant just there to observe, or does it have darker motivations?
Presence is a bit of a gimmick film, with the entire movie shot from the perspective of the ghost, literally giving us an apparition’s eye view of the proceedings. Initially, this feels a little distancing, as we’re constantly drifting above or around our main characters, never quite connected to them, but after a while, it begins to feel effective and surprisingly involving. Every conversation contains allusions to a dark undercurrent and a story within the story eventually reveals itself, leading to a resonant and genuinely heartbreaking conclusion.
What Presence lacks, however, are scares. Those expecting Soderbergh’s answer to Paranormal Activity will want to look elsewhere, as this is a family drama first and supernatural thriller a distant second.
Soderbergh’s direction is in fine form, executing a slow-burn yarn without a wasted second of footage. The acting too is impressive, with Callina Liang and West Mulholland (as Tyler’s dishy mate, Ryan) doing particularly effective work. Lucy Liu, who we’ve seen far too little of lately, is also enjoyable as the wine-quaffing, emotionally distant Rebecca. The script from David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds) is stripped back and elegant, with a nasty sting in its tail, and the overall package is slick and engaging. The lack of big supernatural scares will definitely put some folks off (and ignore the advertising campaign that insists you’ll be browning your daks within seconds of the bloody thing starting), but for the rest, you’re likely to have a haunting, bittersweet time, brought to you by a talented filmmaker who thankfully seems to have fundamentally misunderstood the meaning of retirement.
