Coping with loss is a tragedy of the human condition. To exist on this mortal coil is to one day perish from it. For those that remain, a true test of humanity is how you process that loss. For one family, it means either finding resilience and persevering together or imploding.
Ghostlight follows Dan Mueller (Keith Kupferer) as he numbly floats through life after the death of his son, Brian. Brian and his former girlfriend Christine, being so deeply in love, made a suicide pact to die together after Christine’s family decided to move out of state. During the night the pact was to take place, Brian passed but Christine mysteriously (and miraculously) survived. In the wake of the event, Dan wakes up to a reminder of his son’s passing, where, just outside his bedroom window, his life tragically ended. Because Christine survived the ordeal, Dan sues Christine’s family for wrongful death.
These hectic circumstances put great strain on Dan and his family. Dan walks in a haze, unable to process his son’s death nor verbally express what he is feeling. In pressure situations, this causes a normally sullen and quiet man to erupt violently. When his emotions are too strong to stay buried, he either curses and yells at his daughter disappears from his family with no explanation or has physical confrontations with strangers on the street.
Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer), Dan’s daughter, is nearly expelled from school after pushing a teacher. Her emotions are volatile. One moment, Daisy can be silly (and vulgar) and flash a radiant smile, and the next, angrily scream (while still being vulgar) and storm out of a room. Dan’s marriage to Sharon (Tara Mallen) is questionable to survive the ordeal as the two are at perpetual odds. Sharon opposed the lawsuit and only went through it to support Dan.
“It seemed like you might want a chance of being somebody else for a while.”
Rita, Ghostlight
After an incident where Dan assaults a motorist, he catches the eye of Rita (Dolly de Leon; Triangle of Sadness), an actor and member of a community theater troupe. Rita sees that Dan is clearly struggling to manage his anger and invites him to participate in a table read of “Romeo and Juliet” to let off steam. Reluctantly, he obliges but is lost from the jump as he has no acting experience and knows next to nothing about the classic tragedy. With each rehearsal that Dan participates in, he grows into a creditable performer, and through the play itself, he begins to empathize with his late son. When a person makes the decision to take their life, it can be extremely difficult to know the true emotionality behind the act. The events leading up to the act can be analyzed and scrutinized, but putting yourself in their shoes is daunting. Through Romeo’s eyes, Dan begins to see his son and how a love so powerful ending would make life not worth living.
An interesting wrinkle in the production of Ghostlight is that our protagonists are played by a real-life husband-wife-daughter acting trio. While that fact can come across as a novelty, it does add a unique dynamic to the performances. Keith Kupferer, as the Mueller’s patriarch, gives a brooding, volcanic performance. Though something is always brewing below the surface, Keith knows when to channel vulnerability and gentleness, reminiscent of the late, great James Gandolfini.
Katherine Mallen Kupferer may have the trickiest role in Ghostlight; she has to balance charm and abrasiveness. In ways, she is a perfect avatar for young teenagers: unyieldingly devoted to her emotions while oblivious to where they stem from. Katherine is a dynamo actor, and the character of Daisy is a wiry, unlikely shepherd gently steering her father to greener pastures. Tara Mallen is the mysterious one. As wife and mother, Sharon must hold the family together while sacrificing her needs. Even though we spend more time with Dan and Daisy, Sharon draws from deep hurt, just like the lot, and Tara does a good job at punching up the drama during the appropriate moments. Dolly de Leon gives a fiery and funny performance as Rita, as she plays the counterbalance to Sharon, the woman finding ways to encourage Dan when she cannot.
Ghostlight is similar to Sing Sing in that they both show how art can serve greater purposes than just entertainment and drawing dollars. When we look back at 2024, we should look fondly on movies like Ghostlight, I Like Movies and Thelma: modest budget indie films with new faces that pack a lot of punch and heart. Art can mend and people can heal, even if hesitant to do so.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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