Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson give grief a home in ‘Mouse’

Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson spent years trying to get ‘Mouse,’ shot in Kelly’s Arkansas hometown, made, and a detour through ‘Ghostlight’ showed them how small a footprint they could work with and still keep full control. The film grows from a death Kelly lived through as a teenager, wrapped around an invented friendship between Minnie and the grieving mother, and she speaks to keeping that blend honest to her memory while Alex finds where his own instincts belong in staging it.

Sophie Okonedo’s arrival as a British pianist adrift in central Arkansas gave Helen a loneliness that only deepens once Callie is gone, and Katherine Mallen Kupferer, known for her big, booming energy in ‘Ghostlight,’ is asked here for the opposite, a girl who keeps her feelings sealed away. The directors recall spotting that hidden range in her and helping her trust stillness, and Kelly’s background as an actor tunes her to talents performers haven’t yet discovered in themselves. Minnie’s pull from her mother Barbara’s cluttered animal rescue toward the hushed elegance of Helen’s house takes its shape from Linda Lee’s design, which makes it feel like a hunger for calm instead of ingratitude.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’ and Terrence Malick’s ‘The Thin Red Line’ guided the look, and they explain why teenage heartbreak earned that grand, serious treatment. Two cinematographers, Nate Hurtsellers and Luke Dyra, worked side by side as A and B camera, and the pair break down how they kept the footage cohesive. They also look ahead to ‘The Steel Harp,’ where they direct from inside the action with Kelly back on screen as the lead, and how that changes the way they communicate when she can’t slip away to the monitor.

(Photo: Courtesy of IFC Films)