Presence (2025) Review
Written by Victor DeBonis
Here is a ghost movie taking a familiar premise through a different perspective and rarely feels dull as a result.
Director Steven Soderbergh helms this movie along with a concise yet very well-done script from David Koepp (frequent collaborator with Spielberg), and the story is solely told from the point of view of the ghost haunting a family of humans instead of the other way around.
Straight up, not everybody will find enjoyment from this idea, and there are some who will find the frequent movements of the camera and the movie itself wearisome or even gimmicky as a result.
With the exception of a few actions of the ghost that came across as funny and not scary (one of them involving books), I personally loved this approach to this story. It was a great choice to choose someone who has been behind the camera for decades with different types of stories for the cinematic medium because, although the style from some of his past films isn’t as prominent here, Soderbergh exceptionally presents a number of well-staged sequences from which the ghost either overlooks or occasionally stirs up. Admittedly, I’m a big fan of scenes filmed from the camera’s point of view instead of seeing the character at the center of the screen, and the movie is partly fascinating because the story is told mostly from long takes where the camera glides, pans around, and occasionally gets uncomfortably up close to the conflicted humans just as a ghost would.
The actors also lend to the success of this story and wrestle with grief, frustration, and sheer isolation from the conflict that they’re in the middle of. Some viewers may be misled by the trailers to believe that this is a mostly horrifying movie with the ghostly apparition doing something scary every 5 minutes. While there are certainly plenty of creepy moments and even scenes in which I had to cover my mouth from what I had witnessed, it is important to emphasize that this movie is partly horrific and partly dramatic.
At the center of the story is a ghost overlooking a completely broken family carefully revealing its wounded state with a mother, father, and their two children attempting to appear okay but are sadly glancing out at nothing in particular as they reflect upon their own loneliness and are barely containing the hurt through their voices raising in frustration. All of the four main actors are excellent at using different expressions and dialogue to give you a good idea of who they’re sadly disconnected from and who they do a better job of showing love and appreciation for. Perhaps, my favorite actor from the family is Callina Liang as the daughter of the movie. She keeps to herself and sobs with the weight of someone who aches with grief from losing someone incredibly important to them, and, in between spontaneous actions of hers, she carefully chooses her words as she speaks with sad honesty about the grief that she is going through and the reality of the trauma she is trying to cope from. Liang has the hard task of playing a teenager who has a spark of ferocity within her but also has a surprising maturity and visible hurt from the horrible loss that she has experienced, and she plays this role to wonderful effect.
Lucy Liu is self-absorbed but brimming with hints of wistful hurt from her wounded relationship with her husband, and Chris Sullivan as the father takes pauses of steadily building frustration when his family vocally fights with each other and presents just how lost it is. Sullivan is terrific at playing a Dad who wants what’s best for his children and shows his heart when it really counts to those he trusts, even when he and his wife are emotionally distant and strained from each other.
I love “Presence” because, while it is a movie with great thrills and exceptional work behind the camera with some terrific blocking done by its actors to remind the audience of the haunting spirit that is present, it is, at its core, a terrific drama dealing with themes of grief, loss, and human beings attempting to grapple with appearing relatively fine but still dealing with their own personal battles and the idea that the love and happiness they may have felt more of at one point is no longer there.
The story and haunts take a little bit of building to fully get into motion, and not everybody will enjoy the method through which the story is told. Yet, I loved it and highly recommend it.
A-