A hugely cliched movie in which potential tragedy haunts the perfect life of a young couple who otherwise have it all.
The storyline reminded me of ‘Love Story’: boy meets girl, love blossoms, girl gets seriously ill, is she going to die? This was, of course, repackaged for millennials. The man was shy and awkward, the one who needs to be persuaded and guided, the one for whom domestic bliss would be enough. The woman is the dominant partner; she is feisty, active (we first see her jogging while he is still asleep) and incredibly successful, a real Mary Sue character. Not only is she a starred chef, selected to represent the UK in the Bocuse d’Or, one of the premier cooking competitions in the world (while battling stage 3 cancer), but she used to be a champion figure skater, which seemed totally unnecessary in terms of telling the story.
Naturally she lives in a beautiful and large London flat and they later relocate to a picturesque cottage in the middle of the countryside. Perhaps the egregious product placement (Weetabix, Terry’s Chocolate Orange, Jaffa Cakes, Twix, Bounty, Minis) is actually intended to anchor this fantasy in some version of reality.
Sometimes I long for a movie which shows ordinary, unsuccessful people battling against not only mortality but also poverty and ignorance. Perhaps movie makers believe that cinema audiences wouldn’t be so moved by the death of a character unless that person was impossibly successful (and also, of course, young, apparently healthy, and beautiful).
Yes, there is tension. Of course there is, this movie is about a battle between life or death. Will she or won’t she die? And it does raise the key question of whether you should go for six months of living life to the full or twelve months of the utter misery of chemotherapy. But in the end she seems to be able to have her cake and eat it, effortlessly finding the energy to live life to the max despite occasionally being sick.
The absurdity of this movie reached its climax when, about to give birth, she is first trapped in a traffic jam and then locked in a disabled toilet in a petrol station (the key used to unlock the door breaks in the lock OF COURSE).
The writers attempted to breathe originality into this cliched plot by fracturing the timeline so that the narrative leaps back and forth in time; it was difficult at the start to work out what was going on.
The only real question was whether the two hugely talented lead actors (Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield) could save this script and they very nearly did although Garfield’s performance was so full of mannerisms. mumbles and twitches that I found him irritating. They were superbly supported by Lee Braithwaite playing Jade.
The Guardian rated it 3/5 and described the score as “anodyne”. IMDb gave it 7/10. Rotten Tomatoes was more generous: the tomatometer (critics) giving it 78% and the popcornmeter (audience) giving it 83%. Many of the critics mention the chemistry between the two stars but I think Film Ireland watched a different movie entirely: “there’s nothing out of the ordinary with this young couple.”
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