Karen Moncrieff's The Keeping Hours isn't scary or particularly creepy, but it is a compelling ghost story that's worth watching.
The Keeping Hours (2017), directed by Karen Moncrieff from a script by Rebecca Sonnenshine; starring Lee Pace, Carrie Coon, Sandor Thomas, Amy Smart, and Ana Ortiz.
Anyone who knows me well understands that I am not likely to watch any film described as “heartwarming,” unless I'm compelled. I know what my own personal corner of hell looks like: a locked room containing a television that plays nothing but movies from the Hallmark Channel or Lifetime -- 24/7.
So when I checked out the reviews for The Keeping Hours on IMDb, and saw numerous viewer accolades describing it as “heartwarming,” I first thought of running away from it. Far, far away. But hey, it’s streaming on Netflix and it didn't cost me anything extra to watch, so I took the plunge and started viewing.
The first five minutes of this film are indeed Hallmark-worthy. A handsome professional couple, Mark (Lee Pace) and Elizabeth (Carrie Coon), are getting married in a backyard wedding ceremony. They make heartfelt, cutesy vows. The wedding is a formality; they've been living together for eight years and already have an adorable five-year-old son named Jacob (Sandor Thomas). Their wedding day is perfect and they seem primed to live happily ever after. Note, I was in pain watching all of this.
After the wedding scene, the story switches abruptly to seven years in the future. Mark is now a succesful corporate lawyer with a corner office. Elizabeth is a best-selling author. But they’re not married anymore, and later, when Mark visits his dementia-afflicted dad, we find out why: Jacob died in a car accident a year into their marriage. Mark and Elizabeth each blamed the other for the accident, and split up rancorously.
Outside of his lavish corner law office, Mark is an alcoholic mess, unable to move on from his failed marriage and terrible grief. Then he learns that he has to drive out to his old neighborhood to clean up the rambling old house he owned with Elizabeth. The renters left without paying their final month’s tent and trashed the place.
Mark starts cleaning up the renters' mess, and finds boxes in the attic filled with Jacob’s old toys. As he’s going through the boxes, a little boy appears. He’s Jacob. But he’s not any ordinary ghost. He can think and converse; he can eat and play and sleep. The only thing he can’t do is touch anyone, as the living will get an icy painful shock from touching Jacob.
After getting over his initial fear of the child, Mark starts to interact with Jacob as a father. They are happy together, but Jacob continually asks to see his mother.
Mark finally drives out to see Elizabeth with the pretext of asking her to come to the house to pick out anything from Jacob’s boxes that she wants to keep.
Elizabeth is remarried to a wealthy man and living in a toney mansion with her new husband and his two daughters. She’s very angry at Mark and initially refuses, but eventually she goes to the old house and sees Jacob.
After a lot of emotional scenes, she, Mark, and Jacob start spending a lot of time together as a family in the house. Eventually, Elizabeth and Mark rekindle their love, and they are both very happy. The only fly in the ointment is that Jacob is not really alive, and they both know he will leave when he’s accomplished whatever it is he wanted to do in the world of the living.
A psychic in the neighborhood (played with sparky verve by Ana Ortiz) tells Mark and Elizabeth twice that Jacob won’t move on until his parents let him go — something that Elizabeth especially doesn’t want to do.
The status quo is maintained until the day Mark finds out why Jacob is appearing to them, which has to do with a very sad secret that Elizabeth is hiding from Mark. It also has to do with the seemingly innocent phrase “I pushed the button,” that Jacob keeps repeating randomly. In a very intense scene, Mark finally discovers what that phrase means, and it's heartbreaking.
Avoids the Sap
At this point, the movie could have easily turned unbearably sappy, but it doesn’t. The Keeping Hours maintains a dignified tone to the very end. It's not in the least scary and not particularly creepy either, but it is a ghost story. A sad and quiet little ghost story that's perfect for watching on a gloomy late-fall afternoon.
A plot this intimate demands excellent performances, and Pace as Mark, Coon as Elizabeth, and little Sandor Thomas as Jacob all come through with flying colors. Cinematography is well-done: sombre and naturalistic without being maudlin, provided by Anastas Mikos, who’s best-known for shooting the Purge movies.
Director Moncrieff is a former actress who mostly directs television episodes and television movies now, but she did direct the interesting, 2006 indie The Dead Girl, starring Toni Collette (low-budget, but worth a watch). Moncrieff keeps everything well-paced and tidy; there is not much drag in The Keeping Hours, even though the cast is small and the events are intimate.
This film deserves much more attention; unfortunately, it never got a chance at the box office. Like a lot of indies these day, it debuted at a couple of film festivals and then went straight to disc and streaming. In a film industry that doesn't want to make anything but comic book blockbusters, these small indie films like The Keeping Hours are mostly used for resume-building.
Strong recommend (except for the first five minutes).
