by Samuel Nichols, Contributing Writer
For the everyman, life is mundane. We wake, we commute, we work, we eat, we work some more, we go home, we try to take the edge off, we go to sleep. You work for 30, 40, 50 years, and then you rest until you die. That’s life. And without the other things in life that add flavor and spice, it can very mundane. Mundane almost to a point of wondering what it would be like for your life to end or be over. It can be a very scary thing to dwell on. But people, other people, are the cure to this. I have never seen a movie approach this subject quite like Sometimes I Think About Dying.
Fran (Daisy Ridley) works an office job. She has limited interaction with others and mostly sticks to her cubical. She lives alone and spends her evenings with a glass of wine and a microwave dinner. It’s a solitary lifestyle, but it’s one that Fran chose for herself. She barely speaks a word to anyone, and when she isn’t focused on work, her mind can drift. These drifts bring her to wonder what it would be like to die. But one day after her colleague, Carol (Marcia DeBonis), retires, a replacement by the name of Robert (Dave Merheje) shows up. Robert and Fran take an instant liking to each other. But bringing someone into her life disrupts the pattern that Fran has. And will someone be able to understand and tolerate the thoughts of death that she has?
Now, there are far more important items to talk about in relation to this flick, but praise needs to go to Daisy Ridley. Coming off the success of Star Wars, her career hasn’t quite taken off in the same way that some of her costars’ have. She’s done a few mainstream projects, but for the most part, she’s done smaller works like this. Being a Jedi hero requires a much different kind of performance than a lonely office worker. I find she perfectly encapsulates someone stuck in the muck of the regular nine-to-five workforce. She never seems completely downtrodden or depressed, but she is clearly not filled with joy. And Ridley is great at making us believe she is just doing the minimum to get by.
A movie like this could be easily considered to be a downer, but it has so many aspects to it that keep us from feeling low all the time. While Fran does have limited interactions, those times spent with Robert are fun experiences. She gets to go on dates with him where they go to parties and play games that pull her out of her shell. It is so fun to see her grow and feel something, anything at all. I will say, though, that some of the conflict near the end of the second act between Fran and Robert feels a bit forced. There has to be some kind of tension so there can be a third act resolution, but the script could have used a little more polishing on that end.
The movie has a lot of near-dream sequences that really show off the day dreams of dying that Fran has. They can feel a bit out of place, but perhaps that goes well with the theme of thinking about dying. That’s not a normal thing that one should be doing. But these moments are striking because of how dreamlike they look. There’s a smoky setting which adds to the dreamlike nature of it all.
Honestly, it is hard for me to think and write about this movie critically. I am not clinically depressed or suicidal. Never in my life have I been formally diagnosed with any kind of serious mental health illness or condition. I have some anxieties, but they are based on things the everyman feels: stress from work, personal obligations, wishing I was thinner. But still, I had a rough patch in my life last year where I really did find myself in a place similar to Fran. Just pondering what it would be like to be gone. It was not a healthy thing to be doing, and I took the time to work on myself and talk with the people I care about about it. Being in a much better place now, Sometimes I Think About Dying helped me feel seen. I still have difficulties every now and then and dark thoughts, but knowing I have people to rely on helps me get through it.
Rating: High Side of Liked It
Sometimes I Think About Dying is currently playing in theaters
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