The social contract of the white-collar workplace can be absurd. There’s the awkward quality to any office celebration from holiday parties to retirements, and yet workers—who often have nothing more in common than the source of their paycheck—have been forced to continue this charade for decades. The Office and countless other workplace comedies examine this tension with precision, and yet the new comic drama Sometimes I Think About Dying has something new to say about it. Sure, there are the typical office scenes where everyone goes through the pretense that colleagues are also family, except director Rachel Lambert narrows her focus on the kind of person who stays on the sideline of any such exercise. This workplace is Lambert’s entry point to a painfully introverted young woman, one who resists joy until she meets someone who is actually curious about her, rather than just simply polite.

Daisy Ridley, best known for playing Rey in the most recent Star Wars films, stars as Fran, an office worker in the Pacific Northwest who keeps to herself. The film begins with a retirement party, and while most of Fran’s colleagues are happy for the break or do a good job of pretending to be happy, Fran cannot wait to return to her desk. Lambert follows her home to a modest apartment where her extreme isolation continues. The screenplay from Kevin Armento, Stefanie Abel Horowitz, and Katy Wright–Mead, based on the stage play Killers by Armento, suggests that Fran has almost no interest in life beyond work. I say “almost” because Lambert cuts away to Fran’s daydreams, which involve elaborate scenarios where she dies in sudden accidents, or regards her lifeless body like the centerpiece of an ornate diorama. It would be facile to say Fran suffers from depression, since she has a keen interest in work and routine, and yet her active imagination means she has little empathy for others.

Nothing in Star Wars suggests that Ridley is capable of what she accomplishes in this film. She carefully controls her performance, right down to her command of the tics in her face, which suggests that the act of listening and interpreting is difficult for her (perhaps Fran does not have much practice). At times, the restraint can be funny because Ridley is so unlike her colleagues. In a scene where everyone goes around the conference table to discuss their favorite food, leading to some chitchat, Fran quickly says hers is cottage cheese and declines to elaborate. This stops the camaraderie in its tracks, and they have no choice but to ignore her. The scene is comic, not tragic, thanks to Ridley’s abrupt delivery and Lambert’s gentle staging. We have a strong sense of this young woman, more than any other character in the film, and there is relief and surprise when she negotiates uncomfortable situations. Her dialogue is well-chosen and sparse, hardly a surprise given the stagey source material, and Ridley uses her limited language as an opportunity to develop the character through other means.

Fran’s modest existence suits her just fine, at least until she meets Robert (Dave Merheje), the new guy at the office. He accepts Fran’s awkward nature, then grows curious about her. The two start exchanging messages on the office Slack—the syntax of and punctuation of Fran’s messages are always stiff—and somehow Robert convinces her to join him for a movie. They enjoy each other’s company, at least up to a point, because Fran is reluctant to open up in any ordinary way. The long middle section of Sometimes I Think About Dying involves Robert and Fran’s courtship, a mix of romantic overtures and painful misunderstandings. Merheje is well-cast as Robert, an unwaveringly kind person who is too stubborn to turn away, and yet has a healthy sense of pride. His open, expressive face is a stark contrast to Ridley, whose body language and facial tics are so stilted she moves like an animated skeleton.

Outside of Fran’s private life and her newfound companionship, Lambert’s film is a picturesque slice of life for the coastal town where the characters live. She shot on location in Astoria, Oregon, and her camera will sometimes wander away from Fran to take in the nearby beach, or a striking bridge that dominates the coastline. Eventually, we start to see more of Fran’s colleagues and neighbors, an observation that ordinary folks persist without her. The gap between Fran’s small life and her neglected community come to a head during a great scene, a date where Robert and Fran go to a party, and all the guests are accepting of their strange new friend. It is here where, finally, Fran lets others know what she is sometimes thinking. Others laugh at her imagination, and through careful nonverbal acting, we understand why Robert has cause to worry.

Sometimes I Think About Dying premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. In many ways, the film is typical of what the festival offers, a quirky indie comedy with a recognizable Hollywood actor who plays against type. But Lambert attempts something trickier than that, a detailed character study where the lead resists compassion and scrutiny, and we ultimately care about her, anyway. The final scenes involve Fran at her lowest, a moment where she is more vulnerable than she would admit, and Lambert wastes no time to have Fran lower her defenses. How this happens, and what Fran does with her newfound ease, is genuinely poignant and heartbreaking. This is the sort of film where the journey is pleasant enough, then by the end, everything clicks into view and you have a sense of its delicate, nervy balancing act between comedy and drama. Who knows? You may find yourself moved by Fran, someone you would normally ignore at the office ice cream social, thanks to a performance that announces Ridley as an actor to cherish.

Sometimes I Think About Dying opens in area theaters on Feb. 2.