The films of Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson are simple but deeply felt portraits of people trying to do right by themselves and finding deep connections with others and themselves along the way.
The Chicago-based filmmakers and life partners made their feature debut in 2020 with “Saint Frances,” written by and starring O'Sullivan, directed by Thompson, about an aimless thirtysomething who finds a friend in the 6-year-old boy at that cares . Their second feature is “Ghostlight,” which they co-directed from a script by O'Sullivan, a similarly small-scale indie drama with a big heart that fearlessly tackles the kind of big feelings that can seem impossible to handle.
As behind the camera it is a family affair, it is also a family affair in front of the lens. O'Sullivan had long had Chicago theater actor Keith Kupferer in mind for the lead role of Dan, a construction worker who stumbles upon a community theater production of “Romeo and Juliet” during a time of personal turmoil. , and it turns out that Kupferer has an actor. his daughter, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, and his partner, Tara Mallen, a stalwart of the Chicago acting scene, who fits perfectly into the roles of Dan's fiery daughter, Daisy, and his wife Sharon. With such close family ties informing the production, “Ghostlight” is a film of rare intimacy, a reliable characteristic of O'Sullivan and Thompson's work.
The pair make refreshing films populated by characters who feel like real people facing real situations. The circumstances of “Ghostlight” are in some ways heightened, and perhaps a little coincidentally fortuitous, but then again, so is life sometimes.
The emotional mystery of “Ghostlight” is best left to the viewer to discover, as Dan’s story unfolds like the petals of a flower opening to reveal a devastated inner core. At first, he attempts to manage a period of significant stress, struggling to keep his family together, including his troubled daughter and his long-suffering wife. One afternoon, Rita (Delly de Leon), an actress at a local community theater, witnesses Dan explode on a driver during his road job and takes him inside him to participate in a reading. from “Romeo and Juliet”. “What is this?” he asks. “Your salvation,” she replies.
As Rita, Dolly de Leon (center) gives a feisty, seductive performance in “Ghostlight.”
(Luke Dyra/IFC Films)
When doing community theater, one often has to beg, borrow and steal to select a show, so it's not out of the question that Rita could cajole a worker like Dan into rehearsing. What's notable is that she returns and reluctantly joins in on the improv games, guided meditation, and script work. These quirky people turn out to be an escape for him, strangers from his community who allow him to exist in a space where he can be someone else for an hour or two. He needs it more than he lets on, and little by little, O'Sullivan's script reveals that the particularities of “Romeo and Juliet” come to Dan in a way he never anticipated.
Kupferer is immediately convincing on screen. It seems a little strange to call her performance a breakthrough, considering her long career in theater and television; She has appeared in films by Christopher Nolan, Michael Mann and Steve McQueen. But this type of lead role in a movie is new territory for him. Mallen Kupferer is also a discovery, a firecracker who also conveys a more nuanced adolescent attitude, her Daisy giving orders to her repressed father, demanding that he meet her at her level of explosive emotion.
De Leon, a mainstay of the local theater scene in her native Philippines, fits easily into this Midwestern company and gives a feisty, seductive performance as an earnest New York actress who finds herself back in Chicago playing with the locals at the scenery. She sees a kindred spirit in Dan: someone who needs a hand, to take him out of his routine and give him the squeeze he needs to gain some perspective and knowledge. Her character is a kind of magical device in service of the story, but De Leon infuses the charming Rita with so much life and unpredictable energy.
With understated but tactile beauty, O'Sullivan and Thompson create cinematic worlds you simply want to linger in, populated by recognizable people with family problems, but who approach each challenge with a little more empathy, grace, laughter and creativity than we do. we could see in everyday life. They allow us to witness people going through emotional obstacles, opening hardened hearts to let their humanity spill freely in waves of pain, shame, anger, love and forgiveness.
This is a beautiful, life-affirming fable about the power of art to heal, but in reality, it is the people who make the art who do the work. “Ghostlight” is a surprising and incredibly moving tribute to that process.
Katie Walsh is a film critic for the Tribune News Service.
'ghostly light'
Classification: R, for language
Execution time: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Playing: Opens Friday, June 14 at Landmark Theaters Sunset, West Los Angeles.
