SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
The title of the indie film "Ghostlight" refers to a theatrical superstition. It's that a light bulb kept lit on stage keeps the theater ghost company even when actors are not present. Critic Bob Mondello says in the movie, actors and ghosts are very much present.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Dan is a construction worker who may be an artist with a jackhammer but who's a mess with anything requiring a more delicate touch. A family tragedy has left him with trouble managing his temper. And his 15-year-old daughter, Daisy, hasn't made things any easier by shoving a teacher at school.
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KEITH KUPFERER: (As Dan) Is there anything we can do - community service, letter of apology? Can I give you a kidney?
CHARIN ALVAREZ: (As Principal Santos) Daisy has had plenty of chances already. This is her last one. Did you reach out to the therapist I recommended?
MONDELLO: The whole family needs therapy. Dan and his wife, Sharon, are at wits end...
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TARA MALLEN: (As Sharon) I have no idea what to do.
MONDELLO: ...As Daisy acts out.
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K KUPFERER: (As Dan) Get out of the street.
MALLEN: (As Sharon) Are you kidding?
MONDELLO: But even after he has a meltdown at work that's likely to get him fired...
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K KUPFERER: (As Dan) Stop. Just stop.
MONDELLO: ...Dan's not inclined to ask for help. A witness to the meltdown, a pint-sized woman named Rita...
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DOLLY DE LEON: (As Rita) Hey.
MONDELLO: ...Seems to sense...
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DE LEON: (As Rita) Hey.
MONDELLO: ...That Dan won't ask, so she does the asking.
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DE LEON: (As Rita) I need your help with something.
MONDELLO: The something is a community theater "Romeo And Juliet," and Dan reluctantly reads a part during rehearsal badly.
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DE LEON: (As Rita) It's your line.
K KUPFERER: (As Dan) What noise...
DE LEON: (As Rita) Louder.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Remember - all the way back of the house.
MONDELLO: ...And an hour or so later finds himself treated as a new cast member.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Welcome aboard, sir.
K KUPFERER: (As Dan) I'm just helping out for tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) That's what I said three years ago.
MONDELLO: Though he has no intention of going back, Dan's curious enough that evening to check in with his daughter, a veteran of middle school plays.
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K KUPFERER: (As Dan) Do you know this play, "Romeo And Juliet"?
KATHERINE MALLEN KUPFERER: (As Daisy) Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene. From ancient grudge break new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
K KUPFERER: (As Dan) Whoa.
K M KUPFERER: (As Daisy) We had to learn it for AP English.
K KUPFERER: (As Dan) Well, I I've never seen it.
K M KUPFERER: (As Daisy) Seriously? The movie's a classic.
K KUPFERER: (As Dan) What happens?
K M KUPFERER: (As Daisy) Here's a hint. It's a tragedy.
MONDELLO: A tragedy that intersects with Dan's family tragedy in "Ghostlight," though filmmakers Kelly O' Sullivan and Alex Thompson lean into the humor of the theater parts, as when a suspicious Daisy follows her father downtown and stumbles on a rehearsal with an intimacy coordinator...
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K M KUPFERER: (As Daisy) Hey.
K KUPFERER: (As Dan) Daisy.
K M KUPFERER: (As Daisy) Say hi to mom, cheater.
MONDELLO: ...Where he's kissing Rita.
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DE LEON: (As Rita) Is your daughter? She's lovely.
K M KUPFERER: (As Daisy) You knew he had kids? How could you do this?
HANNA DWORKIN: (As Lanora) Excuse me.
MONDELLO: The director comes out of the shadows.
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K M KUPFERER: (As Daisy) Oh, God. Is this a threesome?
K KUPFERER: (As Dan) It's fake. It's for a play.
MONDELLO: As the drama onstage starts to mirror Dan's life...
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K M KUPFERER: (As Daisy) What play?
MONDELLO: ...He is at once anguished and comforted by the misfit amateurs he's emoting with, all amusingly played by seasoned Chicago stage actors. And the filmmakers have added frames within frames by casting Keith Kupferer as construction worker Dan, his actual wife Tara Mallen as Dan's wife, Sharon, and their daughter Katherine as their screen daughter, Daisy.
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K KUPFERER: (As Dan) How'd you memorize all those lines? And you never seem stressed about it.
K M KUPFERER: (As Daisy) Dad, the lines are the easy part. The hard part is the emotional journey, living truthfully in imaginary circumstances, blah, blah, blah.
MONDELLO: The central theater on varying emotions concept is a tad on the nose, but the performers keep things grounded and authentic. "Triangle Of Sadness" scene-stealer Dolly De Leon is an empathetic wonder as Rita, a 50-something Juliet who is, by turns, as amusing, endearingly feisty and utterly believable as "Ghostlight" itself. I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF FUGEES SONG, "READY OR NOT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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