Ghostlight: A heartwarming tale of ordinary people trying to make the best of their lives. Photo / Supplied
Ghostlight: A heartwarming tale of ordinary people trying to make the best of their lives. Photo / Supplied
Ghostlight is the kind of wonderful low-budget, high-talent indie movie that makes you wonder why everybody doesn’t make films like this.
It’s the story of a working-class American family combusting in the wake of personal tragedy. Construction worker dad Dan (Keith Kupferer) keeps his feelings tightly wrapped, while his clearlytraumatised teenage daughter Daisy flies off the handle at the slightest trigger. With Daisy threatened with expulsion, and Dan worried about an impending court case, poor mum Sharon (Tara Mallen) is just trying to keep her family together.
One day, Dan stumbles into the most unlikely group of healing hands: a community theatre troupe who are rehearsing Romeo and Juliet. Encouraged by the straight-up Rita (Triangle of Sadness’s scene-stealing Dolly De Leon) to “play pretend for an hour and then go back to your life”, the taciturn dad, who doesn’t know the story, finds a new sense of what family can be – and an unexpected opening for emotional expression.
O’Sullivan and Thompson craft a painfully realistic relationship drama that is occasionally blackly humorous. It’s also brilliantly acted by an actual family of thespians. Little wonder the interactions between the frustrated parents and their volatile child feel so viscerally truthful: Kupferer and Mallen are the real-life parents of Katherine Mallen Kupferer (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret), who shines as the vibrant, impossible Daisy.
Ghostlight is a compelling film whose mysteries are revealed slowly throughout the script, albeit one that necessitates a few plot contrivances (including the cliché of a protagonist keeping a secret from his loved ones, which inevitably leads to misunderstanding).
For viewers who’ve dabbled in the performing arts, scenes of script read-throughs and loose-limbed warm-up games will amuse. Taken from the writer-directors’ own am-dram experiences, these naturalistic moments beautifully evince a heartwarming tale of ordinary people trying to make the best of their lives.
Rating out of five: ★★★★½
Ghostlight, directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson is in cinemas from August 15.
