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Ghostlight Movie Review

Ghostlight is a 2024 independent drama film directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and starring Keith Kupferer. It’s a solid, but flawed indie.

When a construction worker joins a local theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life. I really liked the premise behind this movie, but not so much the execution. The very idea that theater can heal you is a sound one, but it led to so many play scenes that made the movie quite boring to watch at times.

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I also appreciated the idea that sometimes family and hobbies can heal you, even more so than traditional therapy can. I am all for movies that go against the grain when it comes to tackling grief and suffering and this one did exactly that. But the problem here is that for the most part the film did not fully examine its ideas.

The most emotional sequences came toward the end and those were excellent, but they were in the minority in this film that is so cluttered with theater scenes that it left very little time for the more meaningful moments to blossom between the characters.

As a result, we do not get to really meet the film’s characters properly. Keith Kupferer did a very good job in the main role and Dan is by far the deepest and most complex character of the bunch. Others did not get much to do for the most part, which was unfortunate.

Ghostlight is very well performed by its lesser-known, but talented cast. The directing is also solid and the movie is very well written. But the main issue here is the pacing, which is rather sluggish. The structure is also problematic as it jumps back and forth between theater and home scenes way too often. The trial scenes were also not as interesting. It’s a shame that they couldn’t prioritize the most important plot elements.

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