Sometimes I Think About Dying Raises Awareness on Loneliness

Loneliness is a real emotion and state of mind which makes one turn into themselves shutting out the world. You find yourself creating a reality that is ultimately detrimental to your mental health and make you lose all sense of what joy or happiness even feels like.

Fran (Daisy Ridley) wastes her daylight hours in the solitude of a cubicle, listening to the constant hum of officemates, occasionally daydreaming to pass the time. Ghosting through life and unable to pop her bubble of isolation, Robert (Dave Merheje) changes everything. Robert.  New to town and the dynamics of the office, his naturally friendly nature keeps trying to chat with Fran. Going against every fiber of her being, she attempts to give this guy a chance.

Director Rachel Lambert crafts a cinematic kaleidoscope for this delicate tale of love for the socially awkward and emotionally challenged. Led by its producer and leading lady, Daisy Ridley spends a great deal of the first act in complete silence forcing the audience to focus on just her reactions and the voices around her.  Lambert expertly creates this illusion with simple extreme close-ups of hands, death fantasies exquisitely posed like a vogue photo shoot, as well as, characters walking while having mundane conversational exchanges along the way.  It’s utterly fascinating and unique. Not to mention it’s multi-cultural cast is so completely reflective of office life in the 21st century.

Cinematographer Dustin Lane never made dying fantasies so inviting with such sights as lying within beach carcass’ to being perfectly placed within a whimsical garden.

One of the most heartbreaking scenes in the film and the moment we really get to see Fran be empathetic is with retired employee Carol (Marcia DeBonis).  Having shared her elation to co-workers about finally being able to travel with her husband, she is now at a coffee shop staring into space when Fran encounters her.  As Carol shares the horrible news of her husband’s stroke and the trip that never was, Fran breaks her wall for a split second to offer empathy.  It’s a beautiful scene between two amazingly gifted subtle actors.

Sometimes I Think About Dying raises awareness into the mindset of loneliness and the mentally ill, yet illustrating that there is always a bit of sunshine if you are brave enough to let it in.