Movie Review: Ms White Light is a Lovely Surprise

Lex (Roberta Collindrez) has a rather mysterious gift. Her job has her sit at the bedside of a person who is dying and give them comfort. Despite her baggy brown suit, unkempt hair, and generally odd manner, Lex has a way of reaching out to those who are dying in ways that members of the family or the medical profession cannot. Lex’s gift is seemingly supernatural and she genuinely helps people accept death in a way that brings great comfort to those who let go.

Outside of her job, Lex is a total disaster. She has no friends and somewhere in her mid-30s, she’s living with her father, Gary (John Ortiz), and sharing a barely functioning vehicle that occasionally drives them to their rundown storefront dedicated to inviting families to have Lex help their loved one pass on from this life. The whole package is pretty strange and I adored every last quirky bit of the set up and presentation of these characters and this universe.

The plot of Ms White Light kicks in when Lex is sent to sit at the bedside of Val (Judith Light), a super rich woman dying slowly of cancer. Val has hired anyone and everyone with any remote insight on death. She’s like a death tourist and she’s enjoying her fade away vacation. This conflicts entirely with Lex’s gift. Lex deals with dying people by helping them leave behind their fear. Val is seemingly fearless, approaching death with curiosity and aplomb.

Making matters worse, Val has hired a psychic named Spencer (Zachary Spicer) who uses his gift of reading people to give a similar sort of comfort as Lex does. Only Lex’s gift is real and Spencer is more of a huckster and showman picking up a paycheck. The conflict among these three characters is unlike anything in any other movie and I loved the strange dynamic the three characters create even as some perfunctory elements do sneak into the movie via this set up.

Ms White Light sounds like a dark comedy and at times, it is a dark comedy. However, I was caught off guard by the well played dramatic beats of Ms White Light are played. Writer-Director Paul Shoulberg is deft and light in his approach, allowing the quirky aspects of Lex to create the comedy while staying true to the gravity of the subject of death. It’s a nifty trick and not one that is easily pulled off. With a lesser cast, Ms White Light could be too cute or too quirky and the tone would be a muddled, sappy mess.

This cast however, is just perfect, especially star Roberta Collindrez. The role of Lex fits Collindrez like a perfectly rumpled brown suit. She’s so completely at ease and at home in this role. No other actor could do for Lex what Collindrez does with her strange energy and curious charisma. Collindrez is effortlessly funny and while at times, the script calls for Lex to be maddeningly stubborn, Collindrez remains someone you just want to watch.

John Ortiz as Lex’s overly optimistic dad is also a wonderful pairing of actor and character. Ortiz is a popular character actor who tends to get roles as cops. Here, given a fully unique and unusual character he never overplays it, he finds just the right tone of optimism, good nature and cringy dad humor. It’s just a lovely performance that peaks with a pair of lovely scenes about grief and love that moved me deeply.

Judith Light and Zachary Spicer are having a great time in Ms White Light. While Light has a lot of big beats to play she never settles for ropey theatrics or broad gestures. Light’s performance is calculated brilliantly, whip-smart with hints of anger and despair in just the right amounts. It’s beautiful and she recognizes well that this isn’t her story, she’s supporting Lex’s story and she’s essential to how well that story is told.

Spicer's Spencer gets a bit of the short end of the stick. He’s got the burden of being the most familiar obstacle in the story, the love interest who starts as an enemy or a minor villain. To Spicer’s credit he never plays this huckster as a villain. Instead, he’s a cheeky huckster who is forced to admit that while he’s in this for the money, he finds Val’s irrepressible spirit irresistible. He’s not giving her money back or dialing down the theatrics of his con but he’s going to be sad for many good reasons once Val is gone.

It's apparent that Val knows that Spencer isn't a psychic medium and cannot tell the future or unite her with dead relatives. And yet, she still pays him to show up and go through the motions. It's a revealing trait for both that they seem to enjoy a friendship as an inside joke. That joke gets very funny for them when they see how much it flusters poor Lex.

There is one more character in Ms White Light but I want you to see the movie and meet her for the first time. This character is yet another assemblage of quirks but she fits right in with the story and reveals yet more layers of Lex through their unique and completely unexpected friendship. Roberta Collindrez is funny when she's frustrated and this mystery character is great at pressing her buttons.

Near the end of Ms White Light there is this incredible moment of direction. Two characters have just reached an emotional peak. They are standing in the hallway about to enter a new phase when another tragedy occurs. Director Shoulberg keeps the camera on one, follows this character past the tragedy unfolding and toward the exit where the camera turns back to capture the characters being left behind at the scene of the tragedy. It's a masterful piece of visual storytelling, dynamic, capturing the sadness and poignancy of the moment beautifully.

I could go on about the wonderful use of film language throughout Ms White Light but instead, I will stop here and tell you that Ms White Light is available now for streaming rental via Amazon Prime or Fandango. It's a must see for anyone who has tired of seeing the same movies over and over again. There are very few movies quite like Ms White Light.