Ghostlight

Ghostlight is at the top of my list for Oscar nominations. No fluff, no preface at the beginning of this review. I will obviously go into detail but Ghostlight was truly one of the best movies of the year. We know that I love movies about movies, but you know what I love more….movies about THEATRE. Yeah that’s right my little theatre nerd heart was so very happy with every aspect of this movie.

The very premise of this movie is brilliant. A family is reeling from the loss of their son/brother who died of a suicide pact with his girlfriend, who survived. Clearly closed off from his emotions and unable to process his son’s loss the father finds himself in a production of Romeo and Juliet. If you aren’t gathering the brilliance of that yet, the father ends up being Romeo. He is literally put in his son’s shoes and is forced to confront how he feels about the circumstances of his death.

The play also serves as a way for him to get closer to his daughter, who was dedicated to theatre before her brother's death. This part of the movie was woven intricately into the script. The film starts with the father at his construction site, completely zoned out. Every time he dissociates there is a song from Oklahoma playing. When dad joins the play he goes to his daughter for help, who clearly knows all about Romeo and Juliet. Even better the people that made this movie were clearly theatre nerds as well because the Playbills in her room included Peter and the Starcatcher (medium recognition), and Doctor Zhivago (crazy obscure, literally only ran for 23 performances).

We find out later that the Oklahoma songs have been playing because that's the last show that daughter did before her brother died, her opening night was the day he died. I deeply appreciate them casting someone who could actually sing.

The biggest stand out scene was at the deposition and dad finally admitted that his son’s death wasn’t his girlfriend's fault. He finally works through all of his grief and anger. This brings him and his daughter even closer because it's what she’s been begging for the whole time. His emotional confession also strains things between him and his wife which is a very honest portrayal of what it's like to lose a child. The film did an incredible job of showing all of the complex emotions that accompany grief.

This movie did an incredible job of showing the many layers of grief. Mom wants retribution, she’s angry and hurt. Dad is completely cutoff and separated from his emotions until being in the play. Daughter just misses her brother and desperately needs her parents to work through their grief together.

My favorite part is that other people get to see how healing theatre can be. Whether it's for escapism, and you desperately need to be someone else for a few hours or you need to work through something that’s really weighing on you, theatre is such a great outlet. Ghostlight really demonstrated that perfectly and it made me very emotional. It was the best of both words for me, film and theatre is where my heart lives. I think the casting was incredible. The fact that Kieth and Katherine Kupferer were both cast really added to the tension and emotional weight of the writing. I think they should both secure a nomination, as should the film for best film and for original screenplay. We know I judge off of re-watchability as much as anything else and for that it gets a 9/10 because it's simply too sad for regular rewatching.