When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a community theater production, the on-stage drama begins to mirror his own life. A film by Kelly O’Sullivan & Alex Thompson, starring Keith Kupferer, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Tara Mallen, and Dolly De Leon

Dan Mueller (Keith Kupferer), a construction worker, and his wife Sharon (Tara Mallen), an elementary school music teacher, are called into the principal’s office. There, Principal Santos (Charín Alvarez) informs them about a serious disciplinary issue involving their teenage daughter, Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer). She has physically assaulted a teacher, which means she faces mandatory expulsion, despite Daisy’s attempts to explain her side of the story.

Understanding Dan’s situation, Santos offers to talk to Mrs. Coldfield but can’t promise that she will be open to it. Still, Santos emphasizes that Dan should reach out to the therapist she recommended earlier.

The next day, while working at the construction site, Dan gets a seemingly important call about the deposition. However, the signal suddenly weakens, and he becomes frustrated, walking around to find a better spot. As he steps onto the road, a driver honks and yells at him to get out of the way. Losing his temper, Dan pulls the driver out of the car and shouts “Stop!” repeatedly in his face. Once he calms down and regains his composure, he realizes that he could lose his job.

The members of the community production watched everything unfold from across the road. Rita (Dolly De Leon) approaches Dan and invites him to their table read, stepping in for Aaron, an actor who abruptly left. Rita introduces Dan to the members: Moira (Alma Washington), Greg (Dexter Zollicoffer), Lanora (Hanna Dworkin), Lucien (Tommy Rivera-Vega), Jonah (H.B. Ward), and Mikey (Matthew C. Yee). Initially hesitant, Dan tries to walk away, insisting that he’s not an actor. Rita playfully teases him, encouraging Dan to just pretend for an hour, promising he can go back to his ordinary life afterward. Eventually, Dan changes his mind and joins them to read the script.

At home, Sharon tells Dan that their lawyer needs a few prep meetings before the actual deposition to help them prepare for the questions they might face.

After dinner, Dan asks Daisy if she knows the play called Romeo and Juliet. To Dan’s amazement, Daisy begins to recite the prologue and asserts that she can memorize it because she had to study it for AP English.

After Dan mentions that he has never seen it, Daisy opens her MacBook Air and starts watching Baz Luhrmann’s version of Romeo + Juliet with him. They get interrupted by a call from one of Daisy’s friends before Dan can finish the movie. As he’s about to leave Daisy’s room, he asks her what happens to the characters. Instead of giving him a straightforward answer, Daisy cryptically replies that it’s a tragedy.

The next day, Dan drives Daisy home after her therapy session. Upon arriving, Dan becomes agitated when he spots Sharon doing something in their backyard. It appears that Sharon is creating a garden with the tools she bought from an end-of-season sale at Home Depot. Dan is against the idea of gardening, asserting that it wouldn’t work because they would be frozen when winter comes. When Sharon insists on working on the garden, Dan grows angrier and ultimately bursts out, lashing out at Daisy and Sharon to leave the backyard, as if he is traumatized by something that nobody wants to speak about.

The Muellers meet with their lawyer, Jim (Bradley Grant Smith), to prepare for the upcoming deposition. Jim asks them a few questions they might encounter to help them feel more comfortable on the actual day. They are suing a woman named Christine Hawthorne, who Daisy describes as her brother’s girlfriend. Dan feels awkward listening to Daisy answer Jim’s questions and decides to step out, saying he needs to use the restroom. When he returns, he finds Daisy in a heated argument with Jim. She becomes increasingly emotional when Jim suggests that the incident was Brian’s fault, despite his attempts to explain that this is what the defense attorney will try to do.

Dan returns to the community theater production because it helps him escape his suffocating world and become someone else, even if just for a moment. However, he becomes frustrated when the cast rehearses the death scene — the climactic moment in Act 5, Scene 3 — where both Romeo and Juliet take their lives. Unfamiliar with the story, Dan grows increasingly agitated and insists that it’s wrong and that Romeo and Juliet should wake up.

When the other members try to explain that they can’t change it because that’s how the story was written, Dan becomes more emotionally aggressive, arguing that the story is stupid since Romeo and Juliet have only known each other for a week. He then tries to convince them to change the ending since it’s all made up anyway. When Greg declares that they’re not going to change the ending because it’s William Shakespeare’s, Dan erupts and violently swipes a prop stool across the room, shocking everyone. He then reveals that his 17-year-old son, Brian, died last year.

Directed by American filmmakers Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, from a screenplay written by O’Sullivan, GHOSTLIGHT is a compelling drama film that centers around a family, with each member seemingly harboring some kind of unspeakable grief and trying to cope with it in their own way.

The leading cast delivers stellar performances that feel authentic and impactful, particularly Keith Kupferer, Dolly De Leon, and Katherine Mallen Kupferer. The supporting characters, especially Tommy Rivera-Vega as Lucian, also provide charming performances.

I love how the narrative unfolds in a way that uses Romeo and Juliet as a backdrop, foreshadowing the family secret that everyone seems to avoid discussing. As Dan fills the role of an actor who abruptly left, at the invitation of Rita, a middle-aged actress who plays Juliet in the production, he begins to realize that a part of the story somehow resembles his own life.

From the beginning, we get glimpses of Dan’s family grappling with a legal deposition involving someone, as they frequently visit their lawyer to prepare. However, the full story remains unclear. Then, in a surprising twist, the last 30 minutes of the film deliver a powerful revelation that is both heartfelt and heartbreaking, making this film truly memorable.

GHOSTLIGHT premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 18 January 2024. It was theatrically released in the United States on 14 June 2024.