Director Steven Soderbergh is the consummate filmmaker, who is always unafraid to play with form and technique. He is constantly pushing the boundaries of what you can do with cinema as a storytelling device and while the idea of a film shot entirely in the first-person point-of-view is not exactly new, to do it throughout the whole film and in the POV of a spirit puts a completely different spin on what you’ve come to expect from him. Though, Soderbergh has played around with multiple genres before. ‘Presence’ begins first as a novelty as we see the narrative unfold only from the perspective of the ghost complete with long takes that glide up and down and throughout the single location – a lavish two-storey, three bedroom house in the suburbs – but as the characters of the family who just moved into the home are revealed and the drama starts to unravel, the novelty of the technique disappears and we become the ghost itself, listening in and watching this family struggle.

The family – Chris, Rebecca, Tyler, and Chloe – seem like a typical bi-racial family. Chris (Chris Sullivan) is white and dotes on his daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) while Rebecca (Lucy Liu) is dismissive of her daughter and is more supportive and encouraging to her swim varsity champion of a son Tyler (Eddy Maday). Chris and Rebecca are constantly disagreeing while Rebecca seems to be having trouble with work. Tyler is dismissive of his younger sister and is hostile to her grieving state. Chloe has just recently lost her best friend. The circumstances are unclear at first, but the film soon lays everything clear later on. Sometimes, Ryan (West Mulholland), a friend of Tyler comes over and he sells weed to Chloe and they start getting closer.

While the film explores the brittle dynamics of this family and how fragile these connections are – at any moment, they are going to break apart – the ghost feels most connected to Chloe, most probably because of her grief. Her longing for her recently passed friend is causing the rift between her and her brother but also allows her to feel the presence in their home.

The film actually shifts again from novelty to a family drama and then into a supernatural mystery as the eponymous presence begins to move things. This ghost and its attachment to Chloe begins to stir the film towards its surprising conclusion that begins to tie in parts of backstory that was being carefully laid out at the start.

By using the first-person perspective, Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp can control the amount of information the audience can get. We are piecing together along with the presence the story of this family. While it sits in and listens to the conversation of the parents in the kitchen, a word will trigger the presence and it rushes up to the bedroom to watch Chloe in bed, moping. We don’t have the context of some of their conversations. The family’s history is unknown to us. Sometimes, they make phone calls, and we have to assume what they are referencing to, if it’s important at all. 

In this way, Soderbergh turns us into the presence and when we begin to see the manipulations enacted upon Chloe by some of the characters, we are not rendered helpless because the ghost does act in her defense. Interestingly enough, the film surprises us with its feminist theme that begins to blossom half-way through the film, and organically too. 

The cast is utterly brilliant as they are performing in such a natural and spontaneous way. While the family do have their moments, the cast never goes for the explosive choices and tries to keep things leveled. As large as that house is, the proximity is forcing them to go interior and it makes for an interesting watch.

‘Presence’ is a deceptively enjoyable film as it vacillates between an experiment in form but also a study of a family in duress. How the two collide creates an arresting movie that, at a tight 85-minutes, never overstays its welcome.

My Rating:

Presence is still showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.