"Gespenster" is a German movie from over 10 years ago written and directed by Christian Petzold, one of Germany's most known filmmakers these days. Today he is mostly known for his collaborations with Nina Hoss, but she does not appear in this one here. Benno Fürmann, however, does and you could call him Petzold's muse back then as he also appeared in many of his works. Here, however, Fürmann's role is fairly small, which is fine for me as I am not the greatest fan of him as an actor. The screenplay is also by Petzold in collaboration with the late Harun Farocki, an author Petzold worked with on many occasions. So there are some familiar factors in this work. This does not really apply though to the lead actresses I believe. Julia Hummer plays the main character and the co-lead is Sabine Timoteo. And their chemistry is pretty good, which is one reason why I enjoyed the watch. But the main reason is Julia Hummer's quietly convincing turn as a young woman looking to be loved, first by another girl, then by a woman who appears to be her mother.
And Hummer really does an outstanding job and she delivers all one can ask for in terms of how the character was written. Speaking about writing, Petzold and Farocki did a good job here too. The characters all seem realistic in my opinion and their interactions make totally sense. One of Petzold's big strengths is always that his character have great shades. They are all flawed, but do not tend to one side (good or bad) too much, but still many director attempt that and succeed, but then it seems just for the sake of it. However, here it feels really raw and spot-on and this makes me happy. The only aspect I did not like here was the plot twist at the very end, which seemed slightly unrealistic to me. I wish they could have kept the approach they gave the film all the time before that. No need to go out on a shocking note. I do prefer realistic endings over happy endings if these happy endings seem nonsensical and forced, but here an actual mother-daughter reunion would have been the best way to close it I think. This is maybe also the reason why I gave it "only" a ***/***** and not a ****/*****. I was pretty close to the higher rating. But this does not change my overall recommendation for "Ghosts". This was a good watch and Hummer's performance alone makes it truly worth the watch. It makes me kinda sad that she has faded pretty much completely out of the spotlight a decade later. But at least we have the greatness she left us here. Go watch it.
And Hummer really does an outstanding job and she delivers all one can ask for in terms of how the character was written. Speaking about writing, Petzold and Farocki did a good job here too. The characters all seem realistic in my opinion and their interactions make totally sense. One of Petzold's big strengths is always that his character have great shades. They are all flawed, but do not tend to one side (good or bad) too much, but still many director attempt that and succeed, but then it seems just for the sake of it. However, here it feels really raw and spot-on and this makes me happy. The only aspect I did not like here was the plot twist at the very end, which seemed slightly unrealistic to me. I wish they could have kept the approach they gave the film all the time before that. No need to go out on a shocking note. I do prefer realistic endings over happy endings if these happy endings seem nonsensical and forced, but here an actual mother-daughter reunion would have been the best way to close it I think. This is maybe also the reason why I gave it "only" a ***/***** and not a ****/*****. I was pretty close to the higher rating. But this does not change my overall recommendation for "Ghosts". This was a good watch and Hummer's performance alone makes it truly worth the watch. It makes me kinda sad that she has faded pretty much completely out of the spotlight a decade later. But at least we have the greatness she left us here. Go watch it.