Sometimes I think about Dying is a low-key romantic comedy-drama about being a quiet person and being left out of the river of life. It focuses on Fran (played by Daisy Ridley) who is utterly isolated in the modern world.

Fran’s workplace provides the only connection she has to other people, and it’s meagre because she doesn’t know how to engage with a world of small-talk and laughs, so is usually ignored, as many quiet, modest people are.

That is, until new guy Robert (Dave Merheje) joins the office. He engages her in some gentle banter and tries to draw her out of her shell. This is one of the few times anyone has taken notice of her, so it changes everything for her. She starts to pin all her hopes on him.

The ordinary is made sad and beautiful in this film, and the score elevates it a lot, as well as some evocative cinematography. But the film belongs to Daisy Ridley, who shows she has great talent. Ridley captures completely the inner world of a life wasting away.

The script, by Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz, and Katy Wright-Mead, is largely small talk, and that works well because it reflects Fran’s experience of the world – her hearing all this ordinary chit-chat but being unable to engage with it, is mirrored by the audience’s experience of not really being engaged with the conversations of her co-workers either. The film is based on a play by Horowitz. It premiered at Sundance last year and Glasgow was its UK premiere. It’s being released by Vertigo on 19th April.

Ailie Hunter
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