The Pacific Northwest (PNW) is famous for many things: perpetual green, copious amounts of rain, and loads of antidepressant prescriptions. Astoria, Oregon is famous for its beauty and all the movies filmed there: Kindergarten Cop, The Goonies, Twilight, Short Circuit, The Ring II, and Free Willy. An old police station there has become a film museum where you can sit in the jail cell used in many of these movies.
Astoria has such a strong sense of place that it figures prominently in Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023), becoming a character that’s more than just backdrop for actors playing out a scene. So many lingering, beautifully-framed shots of the city and it’s harbors take up a substantial amount of this brief film, creating an atmosphere that helps to explain main character Fran (Daisy Ridley). She is an extremely introverted and awkward employee at a port authority office. She keeps to herself, and quickly takes a piece of cake during a going away celebration for a co-worker. Once getting that cake, she retreats to the edge of the room and sneaks back to her cubicle.
The mundane office sounds, low conversations, and superficial ice breakers during meetings also help to create the atmosphere and mood of the film. Some shots in the office focus on everyday banality: a hand hovering over a mouse at a desk, an employee taking off their heels to rub their feet, a going away celebration for an employee’s retiring. Though there’s much more to life in the PNW than gloom and banality, Sometimes focuses on those everyday aspects.
This strong mood and sense of place serve to complement Fran’s anti-social nature. Many times during the day, she zones out and pictures herself dying in beautiful tableaus around Astoria: on a beach among driftwood, in a forest with small insects crawling on her hand. Ridley is masterful with the nonverbal expressions that depict a person struggling with depression and choosing to isolate. Her sparse dialogue usually consists of single-word answers or short phrases.
The humdrum is interrupted when new employee Robert (Dave Merheje) catches Fran’s eye, tempting her to break out of her isolation. The rest of the film is Fran attempting to break her old habits and try connecting with someone. There’s not much else that happens in the film, which could make this slow for a viewer not wanting a sublet character study. But so much is shown instead of told in this movie, making it a treat for those who can identify with Fran, with the experiences of being isolated and depressed, or with the ups and downs of office life.
This is another of those quiet and powerful indie films whose goal is depicting a mood instead of some labyrinthine plot. It provides Ridley a way to show off her acting talents without the use of a lightsaber.
Sometimes I Think About Dying is currently streaming on Kanopy.
- Eric Beach