Movie Review: 'Ghostlight' Healing Through Art

Ghostlight

Directed by Kelly O’Sullivan

Written by Kelly O’Sullivan

Starring Keith Kupferer, Dolly De Leon, Katherine Kupferer, Tara Mallen

Release Date June 14th, 2024

Published January 13th, 2025

Ghostlight stars Keith Kupferer as Dan Mueller, a construction worker and family man recovering from a terrible family tragedy. Dan’s son has taken his own life and now, Dan and his wife, Sharon (Tara Mallen), and their daughter, Daisy (Katherine Kupferer), are involved in a lawsuit with a family related to the son’s death. The stress of the lawsuit is evident in Daisy acting out at school and at home and how Dan’s closed off emotions are affecting his marriage.

The plot of Ghostlight begins to unfold after Dan has a blow up on a construction site. The outburst was witnessed by Rita (Dolly De Leon), an actress at a community theater across the street from the construction site. Rita approaches Dan and draws him into the theater. Rita thinks Dan could use an outlet for his anger and that this would make him a terrific actor. Dan, of course, is skeptical but he’s also intrigued. He takes part in a table read for the production of Romeo and Juliet and then comes back for another run through, and another, eventually joining the play in secret.

Dan keeps his new interest a secret from his wife and daughter and that leads to what other movies would treat as a sitcom style wacky misunderstanding. Ghostlight is better than most other movies, thankfully, and resolves the misunderstanding in a fashion that feels organic rather than tropey. Writer-director Kelly O’Sullivan is not reinventing the wheel with storytelling in Ghostlight, rather, the writer-director is just smart, concise and uninterested in making the film conventional in any overly familiar way.

The heart of Ghostlight is a dedication to authenticity thanks to a group of theater actors bringing their dramatic talents to the big screen for the first time. Aside from BAFTA nominated actress, Dolly De Leon, the cast is made up of Chicago theater actors. The three leads are, in fact, family members, husband, wife and daughter, who’ve participated in local Chicago theater for several years before taking on these roles. This explains why they have such a natural chemistry that serves to further underline the authentic feel of Ghostlight.

I want so much to dig into how Romeo and Juliet plays a pivotal role in this story but I refuse to spoil anything. Ghostlight genuinely caught me off guard with the smart and deeply emotional way that Kelly O’Sullvan weaves the play into the lives of Dan and his family and their family trauma. When it became clear to me exactly what was unfolding, it took my breath away for how seamlessly and brilliantly the film had married the play within the movie and the story of this family. It is an incredibly emotional revelation that leads to an ending that is moving and deeply cathartic at once.

Ghostlight is one of the great overlooked gems of the last year. It’s a smart, sweet, heart-aching drama that also has a warmth and natural humor that carries you through the rocky emotional elements. It's intricately crafted and yet, you never hear the gears turning. It’s not until the final act when it all begins to come into focus and by then you are already so emotionally enveloped, that the revelation hits you with tremendous emotional force. It’s taken me weeks since I saw Ghostlight to sit down and write about it as I sorted out my emotions. That, to me, is the sign of a great movie, one that sinks into your psyche and lingers.

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