AND NOW I LAY ME DOWN | Omeleto

A woman plans a day. Celia Dalvi was once a major soap opera star years ago. But these days, her popularity and stardom have faded, her career has stalled and she feels far from fabulous. When she's served divorce papers, she hits her lowest point. She decides to stage her own farewell tour -- one perfect day before her own personal grand exit. But the day is equal parts makeover and meltdown, spiralling into chaos and even unexpected grace. Directed and written by Rani DeMuth, this emotionally and visually rich dark comedy short combines both boldly extravagant visuals with poignant, sometimes painful emotional intimacy in its portrait of a woman on the edge of both a breakdown and a breakthrough. Featuring a magnificent performance by iconic MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE actor Jane Kaczmarek, Celia is a woman who has everything and nothing at once. As she faces the bald truth of her life, she also faces the truth of herself in a personal reckoning. The visuals have a high-glam Floridian retro-tropical feel, the costuming and mise-en-scene often bustling with color, feathers and many decorative touches. (The pink belt on her groundskeeper Manuel is a fun accent.) It reflects Celia's slightly careworn glamour, as well as her past days of fabulousness. The bright colors and vivid light are a sharp visual contrast to the story's emerging undertow of melancholy, as Celia realizes the extent of the wreckage of her life, with a husband who left her and a daughter who won't talk to her anymore. She's lonely and often bitterly sad, and after many slights, mishaps and catastrophes have built up, she's had it with everything, an emotional arc that the storytelling lays out with equal parts humor, pathos and genuine heartache. The narrative balances comedy and tragedy, a highwire balancing act navigated by Kaczmarek, who plays Celia with savage wit, a gift for balls-out farce and touching vulnerability under it all. It's tremendous fun to see Kaczmarek in vainglorious diva mode as she spends a day trying to live her best life. But she also finds the damaged, hurt human being underneath the gowns and feathers, a woman wracked with disappointments and regrets. As Celia both suffers and levies indignities, she hits her lowest point. But just as she starts to throw it all away, she gets a moment of unexpected grace, a sequence handled with lyricism, transcendence and a few comedic wink. It brings AND NOW I LAY ME DOWN to a conclusion that's heartbreaking, funny and miraculous all at once, one that feels almost spiritual in its relief. Celia's day alone, without the distractions of career or materialism, has caused her to confront herself and some essential truths. No matter how much we achieve, acquire, gain or lose in people, possessions and accomplishments, we still have to live with ourselves, the total sum of our words and actions and our accountability for them. Above all, she's learned there is something to live for -- with the help of a mattress company with excellent customer service and some divine providence. AND NOW I LAY ME DOWN. Courtesy of Rani DeMuth at https://instagram.com/ranidemuth.