If you're up for a movie with superb, highly evocative cinematography, then WIDOW'S WALK might be just the movie for you. If you want anything ELSE from a movie, then probably not so much.
Without doubt, WIDOW'S WALK is a ghost story, but the writer couldn't come up with enough story to last the length of the picture. The excellent cinematography actually gives the impression that it's there to attempt to obfuscate the fact that there isn't much story happening and the movie is hoping you will be so hypnotized by the cinematography you'll overlook it. Too bad; it didn't work. I noticed. And I'm guessing you probably would, too. Although, yes, I did enjoy the gorgeous cinematography.
We're fully 39 minutes or so into the movie before the first incontrovertibly ghostly occurrence and remember, the movie is only about an hour and 36 minutes long. Up until 39 minutes in all we get is the occasional unaccountable, indeterminate galumphing footstep noises or a recalcitrant stove door flopping open by an "unseen hand". *Yawn*
Unsurprisingly, WIDOW'S WALK proceeds with the breakneck speed of a glacier because it only has 30 seconds worth of story to tell and it has to drag that out across an hour and 36 minutes. To be fair, when the story does finally unroll during the last few scenes/minutes of the movie, it's a good, old, traditional ghost story with all the legitimate trimmings, motivations, broken hearts and broken dreams from which such stories are traditionally drawn. If only the story had gradually unrolled as a mystery being revealed progressively during the course of the movie instead of being dumped on us abruptly like chum from a bucket through a flat exposition blurted out by the living-fossil character, book-report style, who had experienced all of the plot elements firsthand. Verbal plot-line dumps like this, by the way, are something you're not supposed to do as a writer; you're supposed to SHOW us, not TELL us, which is exactly what this movie does.
Perhaps even more disappointing than the paucity of unequivocally ghostly activities is the utter lack of genuine character reaction when they DO happen. One can forgive the boy, Noah, for perhaps not picking up on the fact that his little playmate was a ghost since his new friend's appearance and behavior is COMPLETELY indistinguishable from any old, every day little boy aside from the slightly archaic style of his clothing, which could easily have been accounted for in other ways. But when the main character mother (Eve), for example, sees a ghostly apparition literally leap at her from the other side of a window or vanish into thin air by a clothes line or gesticulating at her whilst half transparent out in the middle of an open field in broad daylight, Eve reacts with no more distress from these scary experiences than if she'd merely seen a 3 legged cat. Further, she seems to have no thought or concern for what sorts of experiences HER SON might be having along the same lines. I would think most mothers might be a little concerned about that.
WIDOW'S WALK even engages in that old ghost movie saw where we "discover" that one or more of the regular characters in the movie have actually been ghosts "all along". As the audience, we've known through most of the picture that at least one of the every-day-looking-characters is a ghost, which of course has made us suspicious of some of the other characters so we're not quite as surprised as we might otherwise have been. What IS surprising is coming to realize that there's also a ghost dog, apparently. And even more surprising is that being a ghost doesn't seem to negatively impact regular daily activities. In fact, I'm quite a bit more disabled myself then ghosts are since at least one of them in the movie seems perfectly capable of hunting and fishing live game, enjoying a tasty slice of jam-cake and various other picnic treats (which I CAN'T do; diabetes and all), saving living people from drowning, and going on recreational day trips. Comes to that, I'm actually quite looking forward to becoming a ghost myself for the large bump in quality of life. Being a ghost certainly doesn't seem to carry many limitations with it.
Not so much as a criticism but more as a personal note, I found the primary protagonist mother character (Eve) to be distractingly unappealing. To my eyes, for all the world, she looked, right in the face, like a kangaroo with dirty blonde hair. All she was missing was the long, loppy ears. During the course of the movie, I can only describe some of her expressions as overtly distressing just to look at.
WIDOW'S WALK's makers did have a little bit of fun, though, in telegraphing their ghost characters, but you have to watch closely to catch it, and they get points from me on this.
For example, about 29 minutes into the movie, even before we've actually established the presence of multiple ghosts, there's this scene where 3 of the primary characters (Eve, Joe and Noah) take a little ferry ride on a picnic trip. If you watch carefully, everybody has to give the ferryboat ticket-taker a ticket before they board the ferry. Everybody except... Joe. Now why DUM! DUM! DUM! would you suppose that is? Also, old Myrtle neither looks at nor reacts to Joe when he's around, if you notice. And if you can't figure what all this means at this point, don't worry, they hit you over the head with it at the end.
Gorgeously made and possessed of some genuine claim to being a more or less traditional ghost movie, WIDOW'S WALK simply falls down with its poor quality storytelling. Give the cinematographer a bonus because he carried the picture.
Without doubt, WIDOW'S WALK is a ghost story, but the writer couldn't come up with enough story to last the length of the picture. The excellent cinematography actually gives the impression that it's there to attempt to obfuscate the fact that there isn't much story happening and the movie is hoping you will be so hypnotized by the cinematography you'll overlook it. Too bad; it didn't work. I noticed. And I'm guessing you probably would, too. Although, yes, I did enjoy the gorgeous cinematography.
We're fully 39 minutes or so into the movie before the first incontrovertibly ghostly occurrence and remember, the movie is only about an hour and 36 minutes long. Up until 39 minutes in all we get is the occasional unaccountable, indeterminate galumphing footstep noises or a recalcitrant stove door flopping open by an "unseen hand". *Yawn*
Unsurprisingly, WIDOW'S WALK proceeds with the breakneck speed of a glacier because it only has 30 seconds worth of story to tell and it has to drag that out across an hour and 36 minutes. To be fair, when the story does finally unroll during the last few scenes/minutes of the movie, it's a good, old, traditional ghost story with all the legitimate trimmings, motivations, broken hearts and broken dreams from which such stories are traditionally drawn. If only the story had gradually unrolled as a mystery being revealed progressively during the course of the movie instead of being dumped on us abruptly like chum from a bucket through a flat exposition blurted out by the living-fossil character, book-report style, who had experienced all of the plot elements firsthand. Verbal plot-line dumps like this, by the way, are something you're not supposed to do as a writer; you're supposed to SHOW us, not TELL us, which is exactly what this movie does.
Perhaps even more disappointing than the paucity of unequivocally ghostly activities is the utter lack of genuine character reaction when they DO happen. One can forgive the boy, Noah, for perhaps not picking up on the fact that his little playmate was a ghost since his new friend's appearance and behavior is COMPLETELY indistinguishable from any old, every day little boy aside from the slightly archaic style of his clothing, which could easily have been accounted for in other ways. But when the main character mother (Eve), for example, sees a ghostly apparition literally leap at her from the other side of a window or vanish into thin air by a clothes line or gesticulating at her whilst half transparent out in the middle of an open field in broad daylight, Eve reacts with no more distress from these scary experiences than if she'd merely seen a 3 legged cat. Further, she seems to have no thought or concern for what sorts of experiences HER SON might be having along the same lines. I would think most mothers might be a little concerned about that.
WIDOW'S WALK even engages in that old ghost movie saw where we "discover" that one or more of the regular characters in the movie have actually been ghosts "all along". As the audience, we've known through most of the picture that at least one of the every-day-looking-characters is a ghost, which of course has made us suspicious of some of the other characters so we're not quite as surprised as we might otherwise have been. What IS surprising is coming to realize that there's also a ghost dog, apparently. And even more surprising is that being a ghost doesn't seem to negatively impact regular daily activities. In fact, I'm quite a bit more disabled myself then ghosts are since at least one of them in the movie seems perfectly capable of hunting and fishing live game, enjoying a tasty slice of jam-cake and various other picnic treats (which I CAN'T do; diabetes and all), saving living people from drowning, and going on recreational day trips. Comes to that, I'm actually quite looking forward to becoming a ghost myself for the large bump in quality of life. Being a ghost certainly doesn't seem to carry many limitations with it.
Not so much as a criticism but more as a personal note, I found the primary protagonist mother character (Eve) to be distractingly unappealing. To my eyes, for all the world, she looked, right in the face, like a kangaroo with dirty blonde hair. All she was missing was the long, loppy ears. During the course of the movie, I can only describe some of her expressions as overtly distressing just to look at.
WIDOW'S WALK's makers did have a little bit of fun, though, in telegraphing their ghost characters, but you have to watch closely to catch it, and they get points from me on this.
For example, about 29 minutes into the movie, even before we've actually established the presence of multiple ghosts, there's this scene where 3 of the primary characters (Eve, Joe and Noah) take a little ferry ride on a picnic trip. If you watch carefully, everybody has to give the ferryboat ticket-taker a ticket before they board the ferry. Everybody except... Joe. Now why DUM! DUM! DUM! would you suppose that is? Also, old Myrtle neither looks at nor reacts to Joe when he's around, if you notice. And if you can't figure what all this means at this point, don't worry, they hit you over the head with it at the end.
Gorgeously made and possessed of some genuine claim to being a more or less traditional ghost movie, WIDOW'S WALK simply falls down with its poor quality storytelling. Give the cinematographer a bonus because he carried the picture.