Ghostlight (2024)

By: Mike Ward on Wednesday, November 13

R Running Time: 115 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

As authentic and pure a film experience as you can ever have.
Sneaks up on you - Ghostlight is a film that stirs your emotions while underscoring the importance a community can have in giving someone a boost when they desperately need it.
Carries a humble and gracious tone that sets it apart from other dramatic movies we watch year after year.

NO

For those sensitive to the topic of suicide, this may be a trigger for some viewers.
Grounded in reality, the core trio of actors are a family of three in real life, the film lacks big moments and flashy scenes. If a human-based drama is not your viewing style, unfortunately Ghostlight may not be up your alley.
Near unanimous praise has kept this little movie in awards season conversation and it is one of 2024’s best films. If you are not someone who likes to root for the underdog, go ahead and skip it. For everyone else, grab a tissue or two, cozy up and prepare to feel all the emotions.

OUR REVIEW

There’s something wonderful about a movie that rewards your patience, and validates your investment. From its initial opening minutes, Ghostlight feels like a movie we have seen several times. A laborer struggles to make ends meet, while struggling to do his part in keeping his family together as they seek a way to recover from a terrible tragedy.

The laborer in question, Dan (Keith Kupferer), is like many men we know in real life - conditioned or tempered into an inability to articulate his feelings. This silence of sorts, amplified by recent events, has led to a fraying in his marriage to Sharon (Tara Mallen) and complications connecting with teenage daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer).

Grief is a monster that can haunt us. And for some, Ghostlight appears to have no entry point for happiness or healing. For a few minutes, the story feels bleak, uncomfortable even. Later, we realize this mirrors Dan’s emotional state and is one of the subtle, intuitive ways this movie leaves an impact.

When Dan is scolded on the street by Rita (Dolly de Leon), the movie makes its first emotional pivot. His crew’s jackhammering in the street and the noise of construction trucks has made it very difficult for Rita and her colleagues to do their work in a nondescript storefront nearby. A second encounter leads to an inexplicable request from her. An actor, Rita’s journeyman troupe of community theater performers are putting together an unconventional, one-night only performance of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet.” They need someone to join the cast immediately and Rita invites Dan to join the production.

Dismissive initially, Dan cannot shake his curiosity. When he asks Daisy about what she knows about the play, he is amazed that not only can she recite long passages from Shakespeare’s prose, she also pretty much knows Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film by heart. Rethinking things, Dan pops his head back in for another rehearsal and suddenly finds a new world has opened up to him.

Directed by Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan (Saint Frances), the film becomes a testament to how community can be a savior. Without preaching to its audience or hitting themes squarely on-the-nose, Ghostlight simply illuminates brighter and brighter. Dan finds a place to be accepted, free of the noise that he hears literally and figuratively when at work and at home.

Part of the film’s charm and lasting power comes from the fact that the actors portraying Dan, Sharon, and Daisy are a family in real-life. There is an authenticity to the emotions shared throughout the film, and a believability to how the family interacts with each other that makes Ghostlight look and feel different than other films that look at the ways we process, deal, and try to move on from grief and loss.

As many may already know, in theater-speak, a ghostlight is the solitary light left on in a theater when the stage is empty. And in many ways, the film could not have a more fitting title. Through tragedy comes an inevitable emptiness, no matter how much we try to avoid such emotion. For Dan, the theater group is that flickering, solitary light for him. And O’Sullivan’s beautiful screenplay finds tender balance in how each character has a light they are desperate to keep glowing. A ghostlight shines for each of them in unique, personal ways.

A movie that gets better and better the more you watch it, by the end, I fell in love with Dan, Sharon, and Daisy. I felt connected to the community theater who save not just Dan, but each other. Art has a magical way of bringing people together in the most remarkable of ways. Ghostlight reminds us that kindness and acceptance can be what we need to find the strength to face obstacles, confront fears, and find ways to heal what weighs us down.

I hope you find this film. Ghostlight is one of the best films of 2024.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Keith Kupferer, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Tara Mallen, Dolly De Leon, Hanna Dworkin, Tommy Rivera-Vega, Alma Washington, Matthew C. Yee, Marlene Slaughter, Bradley Grant Smith, Lia Cubilete

Director: Alex Thompson, Kelly O’Sullivan
Written by: Kelly O’Sullivan
Release Date: June 14, 2024
IFC Films

As authentic and pure a film experience as you can ever have.

Sneaks up on you - Ghostlight is a film that stirs your emotions while underscoring the importance a community can have in giving someone a boost when they desperately need it.

Carries a humble and gracious tone that sets it apart from other dramatic movies we watch year after year.

For those sensitive to the topic of suicide, this may be a trigger for some viewers.

Grounded in reality, the core trio of actors are a family of three in real life, the film lacks big moments and flashy scenes. If a human-based drama is not your viewing style, unfortunately Ghostlight may not be up your alley.

Near unanimous praise has kept this little movie in awards season conversation and it is one of 2024’s best films. If you are not someone who likes to root for the underdog, go ahead and skip it. For everyone else, grab a tissue or two, cozy up and prepare to feel all the emotions.