Bluntly put, life on Earth ends for us all, whether we want it to or not. You can try to cheat it, you can deny it or for those who your existence has touched, you can cope with it. This is an unfortunate certainty. For those who remain behind, the “coping” part is often the hardest – “How will I live without you?” is asked with great aplomb by Zora in Daina O. Pusić’s warm and inviting fantasy drama, Tuesday.

Tuesday’s strength lies in Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ astounding performance as Zora, a mother who emotionally distances herself from the fact that her daughter, Tuesday (Lola Petticrew) is terminally ill. Zora is a strong-willed individual with real-world challenges in front of her.

Visually, Pusić addresses the cost of Zora’s emotional struggle with herself in an admirable way. Tuesday, on the other hand, is physically in pain, but at peace, when Death visits in the form of a morphing macaw showing Zora the way forward. Tuesday uses the fantasy side of its story to relate to the emotions related to life, love, and death.

Dreyfus gives an entirely committed performance in Zora, her interpersonal inspiration on display. As her interactions with Death grow, so too does her initial discomfort, anger, rage, and realization. Similarly, Petticrew has the unenviable task of playing the physical side of death Pusić’s script treats both sides of this particular coin equitably and benefits from Dreyfus’ and Petticrew’s performances. If you’ll forgive this, they give life to death.

So too does Arinzé Kene’s voice as the macaw. Of all three talents, Kene has the most difficult task of guiding the living and the dying. When Zora realizes why the macaw is present, the character’s pain and joy are wonderfully represented through Dreyfus. Tuesday becomes the essence of what life is meant to be, where the dramatic side of the story is represented through the trappings of the everyday constructs we’ve created as barriers to our enjoyment and fulfillment of life through the fantastical elements.

Pusić’s plot doesn’t fully come together in that regard. There is recognition that we can let go, that we need to let go. Some of these themes do get lost in the transition between the dramatic and the fantasy. However, if Death in this instance has shown us anything of value in the death of a loved one, it is that we carry our memories of them beyond their passing; they live on in us.

Helping us to cope with the transition, is Alexis Zabe’s poetic cinematography. She aids Pusić with the drab and dreary dramatics while capturing the essence of the fantastical, driving home the film’s point. Similarly, Anna Meredith’s score only strengthens two already strong performances, contextualizing the emotions.

Tuesday achieves its emotional peaks from Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ performance; its inner strength derived from the technical achievements of first-time director Daina Pusić’s direction. The story doesn’t always maintain its highest peaks, however, it leaves us with a profound message about the circle of life, its impacts on those left behind, and the everlasting presence of a loved one’s memory.