I usually don't like saying this but Presence just ended up feeling like a prolonged gimmick of a movie. Because despite the fact that I do think the main idea is quite interesting I don't really think it ended up sustaining a whole feature. If it was a 20-30 minute short I think this premise could've worked wonders and felt like a very unique take on a ghost story. But as is, despite some really impressive camera work, it just ends up feeling like there's a lot of bloat which comes in the form of character drama only some of which I thought actually worked. The transitions between scenes are very abrupt and after a while I felt like I was watching the same 2 or 3 scenes over and over again. The dialogue and the acting can feel quite stilted and a lot of the drama going on between this family doesn't really amount to much with a last minute twist that felt like it belonged in a different movie. For only an 85 minute movie it drags which again goes back to my point that this idea feels better suited to a short. There's a few interesting ideas and more than a few points where I really felt like I was getting what Soderbergh was going for but this really just ended up feeling like a bit of a missed opportunity. I really like the idea and always compliment a film that has a premise I wish I'd have come up with myself. I just wish the actually execution was on the same level.
