“Girl Haunts Boy” movie gave us an ending to ‘The Great Gatsby’

There are movies, and then there are good movies that make their points without needing to be aesthetically perfect to convey their message. The romantic comedy Girl Haunts Boy is one of those films.

The Hollywood rom-com, starring upcoming actors Peyton List and Michael Cimino, is based on a novel of the same name by Cesar Vitale. It draws a spiritual parallel to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and like Fitzgerald’s classic, Girl Haunts Boy masterfully tells a story of grief over both a loved one and a lost love. However, the film uses a metaphysical concept to explore these themes in a unique way.

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Instead of presenting a character lusting after a girl he can never truly have, Girl Haunts Boy introduces the love interest as a ghost who is trying to move on from the realm where the boy still lives. In this case, the girl is a ghost and the boy, Cole, is a human struggling with loneliness following the death of his father.

Where The Great Gatsby uses social class divide to separate Daisy and Gatsby, Girl Haunts Boy uses the metaphysical divide to separate Bea and Cole, with only a magical ring allowing them to communicate. This magical ring functions similarly to Nick’s role in The Great Gatsby, in bringing Daisy closer to Gatsby.

Through this connection, Bea and Cole are able to share moments of romance before the harsh reality of their situation sets in. However, unlike Gatsby, Cole is able to face reality thanks to Bea, who tells him clearly that she is a ghost haunting him, not to help him feel better about himself, but because she is cursed to remain alone forever.

Though both characters wish they could continue relishing their time together, the film emphasizes that time and the universe are no longer aligned for them. Forcing their connection would be selfish on the part of one person toward the other.

In this way, Girl Haunts Boy stands out as a romance film that tackles the theme of selflessness in relationships, contrasting with the need to indulge in selfish desires often portrayed in romantic films.

Unlike Gatsby, Cole grows as a character by facing his grief and willingly letting go of the ghost that haunts him. While Bea is the literal ghost, her presence and eventual absence help Cole move forward—a direct contrast to Gatsby’s tragic inability to let go of Daisy, which ultimately leads to his downfall.

In The Great Gatsby, we are left with a tragic ending, where the narrator Nick is in a depressed state, a stark contrast to the optimistic character we meet early in the novel. On the other hand, Girl Haunts Boy, though not entirely happy in its conclusion, offers a more satisfying resolution to a romance that was doomed from the start.

The film leaves audiences with a poignant lesson: The past is the past; we can only cherish it in order to grow into the future.