The Finnegan siblings haven’t been close for a long time, but they’ll have to come together if they ever hope to get through one of the hardest days one can ever face: the funeral for their father, who died by suicide. They each have widely disparate personalities, and they each find themselves at different stages in the Kübler-Ross grief cycle: icy Rose (Kelly O’Malley) is firmly in the anger stage, sunny Cassie (Ali Astin) is in pure denial, high-school-aged baby sister Becca (Ali Gallo) is subsumed with fear, and big brother Cade (Cole Sprouse)…well, he’s coping with the ample help of various pharmaceuticals. All but Becca are deep in their twenties yet all four of them are united in their perpetual adolescence. But they’ll have to adult-up and present a united front if they have any hope of not being bowled over by their dad’s opinionated, domineering sister Sheila (Penelope Ann Miller).
Choosing to make your first feature film about a topic as sensitive as suicide is a bold choice. Making it a comedy, even a dark one, is an even bolder one. But O’Malley, who initiated the project and co-wrote the script with director Devon M. Schwartz, is uniquely qualified for the task: her own father died by suicide, and for the last decade she has run A Light in Dark Places, a performing arts-driven suicide prevention non-profit she founded. While Wake isn’t strictly autobiographical, her lived experience keeps Wake firmly grounded.
Wake starts in a light-hearted place by focusing on the surreality of the funeral experience. It’s hard enough to try to have an honest emotional response in the stuffy confines of a funeral home; it’s even harder when it’s run by Michael (Nelson Franklin), an inept nepo-baby who just started working at the family business and is both clueless and, unfortunately for him, still squicked out by dead bodies. Next come the petty squabbles; Aunt Sheila has been planning things from afar but the equally opinionated Rose objects to everything from casket color to the suit and tie the deceased will be buried in. Rose undoes much of Sheila’s plans, which Sheila promptly redoes when she arrives, causing whiplash to poor Rachel (Sasha Compère), the dad’s former assistant, who is just trying to keep all the plates spinning. Then Cade (accidentally?) takes some ketamine and a cousin gets Becca drunk and soon responsible Rose and cheerful Cassie are quickly at their wits’ end.
The first hour or so of Wake are a finely tuned mix of absurdity and gallows humor with just the right amount of pathos to ground the proceedings. While it seems like the central conflict will be between the well-meaning kids and their wicked Aunt Sheila, it’s the clash between Rose’s pragmatism and Cassie’s bottomless optimism that’s really causing the most turmoil. As it finally boils over, the film switches to a more serious tone, but the switch is masterfully done, a literal baptism of sorts that sets up the last chunk of the film to deliver a well-earned emotional wallop.
The shift in tone is a delicate balancing act, but O’Malley nails it, both in her finely tuned script and in the way her performance captures Rose’s frustration and sadness. In a smart move, none of the Finnegan siblings are one-dimensional on either the serious or the comedic side, giving Astin, Gallo, and Sprouse an equal opportunity to explore both. They’re supported by a wide-ranging ensemble that includes Miller, Franklin, and Compère as well as the legendary Michael Learned as stern family matriarch Maureen, Chris Parnell as a go-along-to-get-along Uncle Brian, and Riki Lindhome as the well-meaning but seemingly unwelcome Aunt Alina. There are a lot of characters dancing in and out of the narrative (more even than I mentioned here) but they are smartly deployed without fully taking the focus off the Finnegans. (Though I will say Lindhome’s character feels like she’s not quite as firmly defined or as involved in the proceedings as others.)
Wake is the first full-length feature for both O’Malley and Schwartz, but there’s no hesitation or unsure footing. Finding the tonal mix required to pull off the dark comedy without losing the emotional resonance is a real highwire act, but they managed to make it safely across. What a powerful, well-done movie. | Jason Green
Wake will screen at B&B Theatres Creve Coeur West Olive (12657 Olive Blvd.) on Friday, November 13 at 7:45 pm as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival 2026. Director Devon M. Schwartz will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. Single film tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for Cinema St. Louis members, seniors, military, and students with valid current photo IDs. Multi-film and all-access passes are also available. Further information is available here.
