Movie Review: Ghostlight

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

An unabashedly sentimental and profoundly moving dramedy. 

Despite the title, this is not a horror movie, nor does it have anything to do with ghosts. This is rather a deeply emotional story about a family that is falling apart after the son commits suicide. However, the father and the daughter (who are barely talking to each other outside of arguments) reconnect when the father finds himself joining a community theater group. 

This film often dips completely into sentimentality. However, it does so with such sincerity that it never feels forced or cloying. Instead it comes off as completely natural and real to us. Because of this, Ghostlight is a movie that can often truly move its audience to tears. This movie will tug on your heartstrings and never let go. This is one of those films that will make you leave the theater still feeling all the emotions you did while watching. One of the main reasons for this is that it is not afraid to dip into darker territory, yet at the same time never simply becomes a depressing dirge. Rather there are some moments of hope and great beauty, that leave us fully inspired. This creates a very mature and believable look at this movie's complex themes, which are often in equal parts very sad and quite hopeful. This is the true definition of a film that will make you laugh and cry. 

What also makes this film work so well is the characters. As the movie starts, they seem like almost one-dimensional stereotypes. However, as the film goes on, we see that there are many more layers to each of these characters than we first saw. These are characters who have parts of themselves they don't always show outwardly. This is something that community theater allows them to bring out into the open in a way that they usually wouldn't show outwardly. Because of this, we get to truly know these characters in a deep and meaningful way. As the film goes on, they feel more real to us than some people we know in real life. This is helped by truly incredibly performances by Keith Kupferer and Katherine May Kupferer (real life father and daughter) as the father and daughter here. You feel the pure raw emotion in their performances, as they truly pull on your heartstrings. This is evident not only in many of the film's dramatic scenes but in their scenes where the characters are preforming on stage. The climatic performance of Romeo and Juliet will truly bring you to tears. Speaking of the play, the way this movie mirrors the play they are performing with their personal drama is absolutely masterful. The big performance of the play becomes doubly emotional powerful as the drama of Shakespeare's play and the characters' personal drama meld together seemingly effortlessly to create something profoundly moving. 

This movie is not just a pure drama though. Though the story has many very serious themes, the drama is rounded out by some well-incorporated humor. Much of the comedy here is truly hilarious and made me laugh out loud. Most importantly though is that neither the comedy nor the drama ever gets in the way of each other but blend seamlessly. 

A must-see.