‘Ghostlight’: There won’t be a dry eye in the house

A family suffering dysfunctional elements after the death of a loved one slowly reconnect in Ghostlight, a minor indie gem which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Dan is a middle-aged construction worker who is finding it difficult to move forward from his son’s suicide, suffering uncontrollable anger and grief. His wife Stacey is trying to keep her family together and Daisy is their teenage daughter who has been suspended from school. Her inability to cope with the passing of her brother is proving troublesome for the family.

When Dan joins a local community theatre group to escape the tragedy and have ‘a chance at being somebody else for a while’, art imitates life when he is asked to play Romeo in their production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

His coping mechanism initially fails him, but the power of theatre and the people he has befriended in the theatre group are eventually his salvation, therapeutic for the entire family aiding in their moving forward from the tragedy.

People handle grief in different ways but is it difficult to move on from the death of a loved one? “I’m not allowed to be sad. You don’t want to talk about it and when things get tough you bail or blow up!’ Daisy screams out to her father in an emotionally draining scene.

What is unique about Ghostlight is that a real-life family play the pivotal roles as the suffering family. Keith Kupferer (Dan), Katherine Mallen Kupferer (Daisy) and Tara Mallen (Stacey) are actors you may have never heard of before viewing this movie and you’ll quickly be asking, why not?

Audiences will be won over by the excellence in their performances, the dialogue feeling improvised as it’s so natural being performed by three professional actors who are real family.

Filipino actress Dolly De Leon delights as the feisty actress who befriends Dan, alluring him into the theatre group and guiding him through his emotional journey, a slow road to recovery.

The script is beautifully written, highly emotional with a touch of humour. Relatable themes explored include grief, loss, human connection, redemption, reconciliation, the importance of family and friends, and notably the power of theatre.

Audiences should be blown away by Ghostlight, the remarkable surprise movie of the year. Embark on this emotional rollercoaster – there won’t be a dry eye in the house!

★★★★

In cinemas October 10.