Review: Miss You Already

Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore play childhood friends, with Collette being the ‘wild child grown up…slightly’ of the two. They’re about to face a couple of big hurdles both individually and as friends, as the more stable Barrymore is about to have a baby with her nice guy husband (Paddy Considine), whilst Collette receives the horrible news that she has breast cancer. One’s long-time plan of creating life is finally underway at the same time as another faces their own potential death. Jacqueline Bisset plays Collette’s actress mother, and Dominic Cooper is Collette’s reformed rocker husband, respectively.

 

I’ve got a lot of time for Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore, and they definitely convince as friends. However, if you only see one film about female friendship and terminal illness, make it the other one. This 2015 flick from director Catherine Hardwicke (“Thirteen”, “Twilight”) and screenwriter Morwenna Banks (an actress and writer, mostly on TV, adapting her own radio play here oddly enough) is thoroughly beneath its stars, who try but fail to make it worthwhile. I’m not sure if the genre has been completely mined, but even if it hasn’t, this just isn’t good.

 

The comedy actually works better here than the drama, which is as clichéd as it gets. The wig-fitting scene is particularly funny, as is the casting of Jackie Bisset as Collette’s actress mother. Toni Collette is typically excellent, and she’s one of the few women who could totally rock a shaved head. Apparently she really did shave her head for the role, and I don’t doubt it for a second. There’s some nice, sweet moments here and there, but not enough and Barrymore actually takes a bit of a backseat here. She’s sweet as ever, but not really afforded much of a role. You may still find the waterworks being turned on by the end, but largely because death is scary, pointless, random, and fucking unfair. Don’t credit this movie with your tears. It doesn’t earn them properly.

 

I also have to rake Hardwicke and cinematographer Elliot Davis (who shot the first “Twilight” film) for their squirmy, handheld approach to cinematography. I don’t need to see up Toni Collette’s nostril to sense realism and intimacy, OK? It’s squirmy, uncomfortably close and incredibly distracting. It bothered me in an earlier collaboration between the director and cinematographer (the overrated “Thirteen”) and it bothers me here. It’s artifice, an affectation that takes you out of the story it’s trying to draw you into. I wish filmmakers understood that, because it’s not just me either.

 

The two stars are convincing as friends, but Drew Barrymore doesn’t get much to do, and I’d rather their time, effort, and talent were used up by something a lot better than this. “Beaches” it ain’t, and if you didn’t like “Beaches”, run very far away from this one.

 

Rating: C