Dan Webster reviews "Ghostlight"

DAN WEBSTER:

We all have emotions. And I know, that’s the kind of statement that if it were spouted during a television advertisement likely would be accompanied by someone sneering, “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

Equally apparent is the fact that some—maybe many—of us are better at repressing our emotions than others. Take Dan, the protagonist of Ghostlight, a small, intimate film directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson from O’Sullivan original screenplay.

Dan (played by Keith Kupferer) is the kind of downbeat, placid guy you tend to see wearing an orange vest while working the streets, either running some sort of construction machine or directing traffic around some kind of obstruction. He’s not likely to express any emotion at all, unless it’s boredom, until pushed—maybe by a careless, belligerent driver.

And then Dan might explode, which is typical of repressed people. Spurning the ordinary, everyday emotional releases that many of us practice, people like Dan find themselves overwhelmed by pent-up feelings that can lead to serious, sometimes damaging consequences.

We come, slowly but gradually, to find out that Dan in particular—an “old-school” kind of guy (his words)—has something troubling him, something he would rather not face directly. That thing also affects his wife Sharon (played by Tara Mallen) but also, and particularly, their daughter Daisy (played by Katherine Mallen Kupferer).

(An aside here: If those names all sound similar, it’s because the three of them are a family in real life, even if the characters they play are figments of writer-director O’Sullivan’s imagination.)

Those characters, it turns out, are dealing with the aftereffects of a family tragedy, one that O’Sullivan and Thompson reveal slowly, giving us hints along the way. Such as the fact that Daisy is an obstreperous 16-year-old, facing expulsion from school because she pushed a teacher. Or the meetings with a lawyer that the three attend involving a wrongful death law suit.

But matters tend to change when, by chance, Dan encounters Rita (Dolly De Leon), a woman who is as open with her feelings as Dan is closed with his. It’s through Rita that Dan is introduced to a local theater group, one that is preparing to put on a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Intrigued by what he sees, but as estranged from the world of theater as he would be from a restaurant that serves salade niçoise or some other gourmet French dish, Dan is resistant to the group’s offer to join them. But because they need an extra body, they persist – and Dan slowly comes around, despite the fact that he’s unfamiliar with the play and all it means.

This is the point where Ghostlight indulges in a bit of artistic license. I mean, who doesn’t know at least the basic plotline of Romeo and Juliet? It is a touching scene, though, when Daisy explains it to him, even quoting its opening lines from memory.

And anyway, Dan’s reactions—particularly after he blows up at that careless driver I mentioned previously—prove plausible enough. Because the theater group accepts him, and he begins to slowly open up to them in ways that he hasn’t been able to with his wife and daughter.

It turns out, too, that the play holds special meaning to the family tragedy the three have endured. And it is through that play that everyone finally is shown a way to a kind of emotional release and a sense, at least a sense, of peace.

In so many ways, what O’Sullivan and Thompson put on the screen could have gone wrong. But they benefit greatly by casting three leads whose interactions come naturally from a trained theatrical family.

And by allowing their film to progress as naturally as possible, they manage to create a study of ordinary people that ultimately is a powerful, authentic portrayal of grief and how one man and his family manage to face it together and remain intact. Watching it, you just might feel the need to stifle a sob or two yourself.

For Spokane Public Radio, I’m Dan Webster.

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Movies 101 host Dan Webster is a senior film critic for Spokane Public Radio and a blogger for Spokesman.com/7blog.