How do you know when you have a ghost? A picture removed from its frame that no family member touched … is that a ghost? An LP playing downstairs when nobody else is in the house … is that a ghost? A spirit of a dead guy shows up in the night and shows you what Christmas is like in the future without you … is that a ghost? Is it three ghosts? Does it matter?
This film opens with a child abduction, but immediately makes that plot secondary, which (at first) seemed an odd choice. After all, when a bike-riding kid gets abducted, that’s a fairly significant and moving event. The key moment is that it looks like some magical force abducts the boy, which steers right into the plot about the ghost and the messed up family.
Mom (Helen Hunt, remember her?) had an affair and dad (Jon Tenney) – who just happens to be lead detective on the abduction case – still ain’t pleased about it, but their son Connor (Judah Lewis) is the one who is taking it the worst. It’s hard to explain to a teen: “this isn’t about
you.” And this is when stuff starts … happening. Pictures, silverware, coffee cups, drawers … what the Hell is going on?
I See You takes several monster turns, the first being immediately after Act I, so I’m reluctant to continue other than to say the film seamlessly switches protagonists and genres more than once. It’s fair to spoil that romance is not among the genres; don’t expect the ghost of Patrick Swayze to show up and apologize for taking all the spoons.
If you like to guess, this is a film for you. Do keep an open mind. I See You likes to reexamine events from different points of view, which is to say if you don’t have a full picture, you might be rooting for the wrong thing. I liked guessing and I liked the film telling me it had presented a false façade or two. I can’t say that will be true for everybody; you might feel cheated by the experience. That’s a shame because while I See You is far-from-perfect and far-from-100% logical, some clever folks put a lot of thought into filming and editing this thing.
A growing amount of mischief has amassed
When? During Noel, I am glad you asked
Causing family squabbles
Over trinkets and baubles
Maybe it’s the ghost of kitsch-mas past
Rated R, 98 Minutes
Director: Adam Randall
Writer: Devon Graye
Genre: If you can guess it all, you get a prize
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Puzzle solvers
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The inflexible
