By John Corrado

Fran (Daisy Ridley) is an office worker in Oregon who thinks a lot about dying. She sits in a daze at her cubicle, imagining her dead body decaying in the woods or being hung from the crane outside her window.

Fran’s morbid daydreams provide the basis for the title of director Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying, a quiet drama that drops us in on her life just as she meets someone new who might bring her out of her shell. It’s not apparent that Fran is actively suicidal, more disaffected and looking for an escape from her repetitive, boring life.

Fran has her routines, like eating cottage cheese on bread with a knife and fork, and silently listening to the vaguely annoying office chit-chat happening around her. But her world begins to open up with the arrival of a talkative new co-worker named Robert (Dave Merheje), who takes an interest in her. The two bond over the online office chat, which leads to a date of sorts. He likes to talk, she likes to listen.

This isn’t exactly a classic “meet cute,” because Lambert’s film isn’t exactly a traditional romance. The screenplay by co-writers Stefanie Abel Horowitz, Kevin Armento and Katy Wright-Mead, expanding their 2019 short film of the same name (which Wright-Mead starred in as Fran), instead takes a very quiet, patient approach to exploring their tentative relationship. We don’t find out much more about these characters, we simply drop in on their lives for a short while, and that’s enough thanks to the writing and performances.

Ridley, who hasn’t really been given the chance to prove herself outside of the Star Wars franchise, is very good at playing a painfully shy character who keeps many of her emotions internalized. Fran often barely says a word, only revealing herself through the slight crack of a smile. Nicely balancing her out is Canadian comedian Merheje, who does charming work as the love interest who hopes to be let in.

The cinematography by Dustin Lane captures the drab Oregonian surroundings, and the even drabber office interiors. Lambert’s film is something that could have been played as quirky romantic comedy, but is instead a bit sadder and more subdued. It’s a movie that knows some might reject it at first, but one that lingers in its own quiet way.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

Sometimes I Think About Dying opens exclusively in theatres in limited release on February 9th. It’s being distributed in Canada by Vortex Media.