Miss You Already (2015)

Beaches 2 or something more? Maybe somewhere in between. Miss You Already tells the story of two lifelong best friends who have been there for each other at every instance of their lives. Jess (Drew Barrymore – Charlie’s Angels, The Wedding Singer) and Milly (Toni Collette – The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine) have been nearly inseparable since Jess transferred into Milly’s first-grade class in London after moving from the United States. As the pair approaches her 40th birthday, they are infused with a situation that no one can ever prepare for. Yes, this is both a friendship movie and a cancer movie. Yes, it will try to try to guilt you into tears. But, while the acting is not great and the story predictable, something about the movie keeps you interested when a lesser movie would have lost you completely 45 minutes in.

Miss You Already is the tenth movie that Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) has directed, and this is, by far, her most weepy. I haven’t seen all of her movies, but she is a director who refuses to be defined by a single theme after looking at her filmography. Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown are movies that need to be watched once. You’d probably be as surprised as me to learn that this same person also directed films like Twilight, The Nativity Story, and Plush. Her adaptation of first-time screenwriter Morwenna Banks’ script is admirable. How this film succeeded as a theater release rather than a direct-to-DVD or, worse, a Lifetime movie is not because of the two leads or because of the story. It’s because of Hardwicke’s ability to keep us interested each time we are ready to dismiss it.

Milly is a loose cannon. She is selfish and impulsive. But she likes having fun. Highly successful at a job of her own, her lifestyle is enhanced by her highly successful husband Kit (Dominic Cooper – My Week With MarilynAn Education), a former rock singer who lived a rock star lifestyle and impregnated Milly backstage at one of his concerts. Long story short, the two, who never would have met for a second time, decide to try a life together for the baby’s sake. It turns out to be a pretty solid marriage. That is until she gets diagnosed with breast cancer.

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Jess, meanwhile, is more even-tempered. She can be relied upon. Sometimes, she is more of a big sister than a best friend. She’s considerate and always looking out for Milly. But she has issues of her own. She’s doing her best to make a baby with her husband Jago (Paddy Considine – Pride, The Bourne Ultimatum). Unfortunately, they have been unsuccessful, and that has put a strain on their marriage. At the same time, Milly and Kit live the good life, and Jess and Jago live paycheck to paycheck. In need of more money to get assistance with fertilization, Jago takes an assignment to go out to see and work on an oil rig.

After her diagnosis, chemotherapy, and mastectomy, Milly is at a loss. Everything she knows has changed, including her relationship with Kit. Milly spirals out of control emotionally while deteriorating physically. She turns to her best friend to help her through things, but, just like all things cancer, the only thing you can predict is the unpredictability of the disease. It takes its toll on the friendship but still follows a path of movie familiarity. Barrymore and Collette sometimes overact, which detracts from the movie’s flow. There are times when it feels like this is a movie. Still, at other times, you are wrapped up in Collette’s ability to portray Milly as a dying woman who first acts out and then goes through a massive bout with depression before ultimately accepting her fate and trying to make amends with everyone important to her.

I thought Miss You Already did an excellent job regarding the onset and subsequent sickness spreading. Due diligence was paid by all involved with this movie. I think those who have had cancer or have lost someone close to it would agree that this was very honest and respectful of the illness. Milly goes through the gamut of emotions one would experience when being diagnosed with cancer. She expresses shock, disbelief, fear, anxiety, guilt, sadness, grief, depression, anger, and other emotions.

Unfortunately, Milly acts out and hurts the most important people to her. Jess uses a term that I’ve never heard before. After looking it up online, she calls Milly a “cancer bully,” which doesn’t appear to be a mainstream term. I’ve lost three people very, very close to me to cancer, and all three of them carried themselves with such dignity, pride, and kindness during their terminal illness that I rarely got to see the emotions experienced by Milly. I am positive all three of them were fearful, angry, and depressed, but each of them hid many of these emotions from others and wanted to present a front that was full of positivity and love. I have such wonderful lasting memories of my grandmother, brother-in-law, and one of my best friends, and I will never forget how kind and loving they were to all those around them throughout their sickness. I have so much admiration for how they handled a situation that they had no control over. I feel as if I was struck with a terminal illness,  I wouldn’t leave this world a furious man.

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Miss You Already was a realistic movie that covered a lot of ground in 1 hour and 52 minutes. It never dragged and, as mentioned a couple of times, when you felt like it would take a turn towards the teary or the predictable, it veered away and kept you interested and, thus, kept it far more watchable than some cheesy Lifetime movie. Nonetheless, this will hit a little too close to home for many people. I remember enjoying the movie 50/50 while my sister said that she might have liked it if her husband hadn’t been fighting cancer during that time. And I get that. A movie labeled as a “cancer comedy” is a tough sell in this day and age. There is no cure for this disease, so it’s far easier to joke about this on a set where the actors playing the characters can leave the set at the end of the day and continue living their everyday lives. The part of this movie that was inconsistent with everything else was that she was alone almost every time Milly was at the doctor’s office getting news about her illness. She didn’t have her husband, mother, or Jess with her. This seemed particularly strange since the movie was based on the friendship between Milly and Jess.

Overall, this movie is worth watching on a streaming service. Don’t expect to love it. It is easier to watch if you haven’t dealt with someone close to you having cancer. Likewise, if you want to learn more about the human aspect of this disease and how it can affect a person physically and emotionally and those closest to her, this could be the film to watch.

Plot 8/10 (it’s a movie about friendship, and it’s a movie about cancer. It does both well but does neither great)
Character Development 8.5/10 (Despite times when there is way too much overacting, the development of the characters…especially Milly and her husband Kit, is well done)
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 7/10 (Barrymore and Collette both overact…at times, it isn’t very good…especially Barrymore)
Screenplay 8/10 (sappy)
Directing  8.5/10 (Hardwicke holds this thing together when it could have fractured in many different ways)
Cinematography 8.5/10 (in all honesty, the scenes in hospice felt all too familiar…the filming of these scenes brought some of the most painful memories of my life back…the shooting of this film never makes me feel London though…however, the physical deterioration of Milly is very well done)
Sound 7/10 (don’t get me started on the REM “Losing My Religion” scene…)
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
79.5%

C+

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