★★
The trailer for Miss You Already, the new BFF tearjerker from Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, is without doubt the most emotionally manipulative, trope-laden and cloying trailer of 2015. It sets expectations extremely low, but fortunately, the film manages to surpass them somewhat, opting for a minimalism that can’t save the story, but at least makes it bearable.
Jess (Drew Barrymore) and Milly (Toni Collette) have been the closest of friends since their early school days, and remain so through marriages, pregnancies and all the drama life can throw at them. But when Milly is diagnosed with breast cancer, their relationship is put to the ultimate test.
It says something unpleasant that Barrymore was the third choice for the lead role after both Jennifer Aniston and Rachel Weisz dropped out. Despite its focus on two female leads, Miss You Already doesn’t provide anyone with a particularly meaty role, nor enough plot to hang a story on. The relationship is all there is to the film, and if you’re not invested in it, you might as well turn it off. Even Paddy Considine, a wonderful actor, falls terribly flat here with the little he’s given.
The moments most irksome are often the most predictable ones. Milly’s diagnosis from a sympathetic doctor; her explanation of her condition to her children; infidelities and arguments wrung out to pad the running time. Name any one cliché from soppy dramas about terminal illness and it’s right here on display. Aren’t we all just waiting with bated breath for the moment someone says the title of the film?
But the worst offenders are always the kids. Every time you put a child actor in a position where they are required to actually act, the moment loses all weight. A far more effective moment, free of dialogue, is when Milly’s son (Ryan Lennon Baker) climbs into her luggage while she packs to move into a hospice.
The film’s strengths are threefold – firstly, Collette is a powerful performer and manages to carry the bad girl stereotype that is Milly with depth and believability. There are also a few zinger moments peppered throughout Morwenna Banks’ script that imply she may not actually be all that bad.
Finally, though there are a few on-the-nose music cues that try too hard to twang the heartstrings, for the most part, the distance and silence employed by Hardwicke manage to keep the focus where it should be – on the core relationship and the harsh realities of cancer.
If you enjoy strategically planning to reach for the tissue box, you could do worse than pick Miss You Already.
Miss You Already opens in cinemas on Thursday October 8.
