Daisy Ridley is superb in this brilliant examination of loneliness and mundanity in modern society, Rachel Lambert’s low-key but wonderfully crafted and acted story a great start to Sundance 2023.
There’s something, I think, that everyone can relate to in this study of life enduring an ordinary job with everyday people in a small American town – the repetitiveness of the normal day constantly dragging us down. Ridley is Fran, an office worker for a company based in a small Oregon town on the west coast of the U.S. We don’t quite know what she does, but we see she sits in a cubicle, her face buried in spreadsheets while, at the same time, taking in the office culture that surrounds her. She likes her job – she admits that halfway through – but she also has thoughts about dying – whether that be hanging from the crane that is in constant in use on the ships outside or laying in the woods, dumped with the wildlife and crawling insects.
Office life is peppered with ceaseless small talk, whether that be about peoples’ dogs, desk equipment, what they like to eat, or upcoming celebrations – specifically early on in the film a retirement, a lady sitting adjacent to Fran who has seemingly worked for the company her whole life. Rather than suicidal, Fran is deeply lonely, and constantly waits for an event in her life to end her stay of isolation. That comes with the introduction of a new office worker, Robert (a fantastic Dave Merheje), who might just be her remedy.
Lambert’s film is enjoyable throughout, if, at times, a little uncomfortable. We cringe not at the dark thoughts Fran has, but the easily identifiable and relatable traits of working culture and the conversations that surround it, life is only given that spark by people we are, or end up being close to -whether that be a peer, or indeed a potential lover.
Ridley hardly speaks for the vast majority of the film, the insular Fran is an observer rather than a participant. She’s tortured but unrelenting in her patience with life and the young actor nails it with just gesture and movement. I don’t think I’ve seen her better. That performance is complimented by a great supporting cast who all deliver naturalistic turns as if we were a fly on the wall in a documentary. It all works wonderfully.
A great kick-off to the 2023 Sundance festival, a film that’ll sure to find an audience down the line.
Sometimes I Think About Dying was reviewed at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
Sometimes I Think About Dying
Summary
Brilliant acted and crafted, Sometimes I Think About Dying is a subdued though optimistic look at loneliness in contemporary society – an enjoyable one at that.
