Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival 2024 – Film festival hype aside, some movies just feel special. Ghostlight is one of those films. It’s an endearing indie comedy/drama that has the potential to find its audience and really resonate because it deals with the classic, universal themes of love, loss, and family.

Directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, the film stars Keith Kupferer in one heck of a performance as Dan, a construction worker who gets roped into joining a community theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet. More specifically, one of the play’s actresses, Rita (Dolly De Leon), forces Dan to join and only knows him because he works right outside of the theater. She understands, however, that something gnaws at him. He needs something, anything, to take his mind off of his own private hell.

Dan lost his son to suicide in a sort of star-crossed lovers’ tragedy that mirrors the Romeo and Juliet storyline. Only, in this case, Juliet lives, and Dan’s family wants to sue her family, blaming them for the loss of their son. Grief impacts everyone differently. Dan tends to bury it, until he erupts at certain points. His daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) lashes out at school and struggles in therapy. The loss of her brother hit her so hard that she quit acting in school plays, even though it’s her passion. The matriarch, Sharon (Tara Mallen), has a quiet resolve and does her best to keep the family together.

The family’s collective performance can’t be understated, and their chemistry makes sense since they’re related. This is a true family picture, in that Mallen Kupferer is the actual daughter of her on-screen parents. Each brings so much to the table, and for Mallen Kupferer especially, this very much feels like a breakout role. I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more of her after her knockout performance in this film. Her theater background especially shines here.

Yet, while this film may deal with a family tragedy, it’s also incredibly funny, especially when Dan first joins the theater group and stumbles over his lines. His colleagues, meanwhile, are a bunch of misfits and has-beens struggling to pull off one of the Bard’s most famous plays. It just feels like this entire cast gels and really fires on all cylinders. Just about every joke lands.

It’s not easy to merge laughs with heavier moments, but Thomson and O’Sullivan really do it so well here, which calls to mind Little Miss Sunshine. You root for the family in that film to pull through, and you’ll feel the same about the fractured unit in Ghostlight. You want this underdog family to endure, and you also want Dan’s newfound theater family to actually make it to opening night and have a successful show.

Ghostlight is one of the best films of the year thus far. It’ll make you laugh and cry. There’s a tenderness here that doesn’t feel overly sentimental but hits just the right notes, and the performances, especially by daughter and dad, simply dazzle. This film is a love letter to the theater and the power of art to cope with difficult emotions and eventually heal.

9 Out of 10