Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence” almost manages to succeed purely because of its style. It’s shot entirely in the first-person, from the perspective of a poltergeist — it doesn’t sound like it should work, but somehow the experiment in form is successfully captivating. From a technical perspective, “Presence” is genuinely fantastic. Nevertheless, while it triumphs visually, it almost totally fails to present an engaging, well-written story.
I was looking forward to this film. It’s been getting fairly decent reviews from critics, the concept sounded immensely fascinating and both Soderbergh’s name and the Neon brand being attached were promising. There is a great film here somewhere, buried deep within its DNA, but I was just never emotionally engaged in the way the film so desperately wanted me to be. More a movie about grief than anything, it really only felt like a middling attempt at emulating the vibes and themes of Ari Aster’s work — unfortunately though for Soderbergh, “Hereditary” and “Beau Is Afraid” are simply much better projects.
“Presence” follows a family of four who have recently moved into a new home. Chloe (Callina Liang), who is probably the closest to being the main character, is beset with sorrow at the death of her best friend. She doesn’t get along with her brother, Tyler (Eddy Maday), very well, and neither does she with her mother, Rebecca (Lucy Liu). In fact, Rebecca doesn’t really care much for Chloe anyway, she spends most of her time obsessing over Tyler and relegating her daughter to the sidelines. Thankfully, Chloe’s father, Chris (Chris Sullivan), is there for her and effectively acts as her protector.
This is the simple basis from which the story’s central conflict sprouts: as the plot moves along, the family slowly comes to realize that a spirit is haunting their house, and whether that spirit is at all related to their past tragedy becomes the crucial question. I don’t think this story is inherently bad; I think, actually, that it could be really very interesting! But, for some reason, Soderbergh tapped David Koepp — whose recent works include the scripts for poorly received films like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the 2017 reboot of “The Mummy” and “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” — to write the film. It’s an understatement to call the screenplay a total mess: the dialogue is almost embarrassingly bad at points, there’s an amalgam of side plots that are often completely forgotten and the twists and turns are totally out of the blue and only work to muddle the plot.
While the actors are, admittedly, working with very little — even the best actors can only do so much with a terrible script — the performances here are hardly anything to praise. Sullivan is probably the best overall, but it’s also possible that his supporting actors’ mediocre performances only worked to his benefit. It’s also worth mentioning that Julia Fox — who, by virtue of being the biggest name attached, has been a major part of the picture’s marketing — has maybe five minutes of screentime total. And she uses those five minutes to give a totally uninterested, detached performance that is almost instantly forgettable.
Which is really just the problem with the film overall, if we’re being completely honest: its formal experimentation is great, as I’ve said, but, ultimately, I’m going to forget almost everything else about “Presence” by the end of the week. It’s very likely I’ll never think of this movie again. And that’s really a shame, because it should’ve been so much more.
I admire Soderbergh as a filmmaker, I admire his commitment to independent cinema and his prolificity. I’m still (though now cautiously) looking forward to his upcoming film “Black Bag,” which is set to be released in March. But “Presence” feels like the work of a filmmaker who’s too scared to go over the edge, who’s worried to really push boundaries and make something truly compelling. I wouldn’t call the 85 minutes or so I spent watching this movie a total waste of time, but I spent most of it just thinking about other, better horror and thriller films when I should’ve been thinking about the one in front of me. And that should really tell you everything you need to know.
