MISS YOU ALREADY (2015)

Genre: Drama
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Cast: Drew Barrymore, Toni Collette, Dominic Cooper, Paddy Considine, Tyson Ritter, Mem Ferda
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Some Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 5 November 2015

Synopsis: From director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Thirteen), starring Drew Barrymore (Never Been Kissed, Charlie’s Angels, The Wedding Singer) and Toni Collette (Muriel’s Wedding, Little Miss Sunshine, About A Boy) comes an honest and powerful story following two best friends through the highs and lows of life. They say opposites attract. Milly (Toni Collette) is the woman who has everything: a successful career, a devoted husband, and two gorgeous kids. Her best friend is Jess (Drew Barrymore): Jess works in a community garden, lives in a boathouse with her boyfriend Jago, and desperately wants a baby. Friends since childhood, Jess and Milly can’t remember a time they didn’t share everything - secrets, clothes, even boyfriends; their differences are the glue that binds them together. That is until Milly is hit with the life changing news that she has breast cancer and needs Jess’s support more than ever. As Jess tries to balance her own life with being there for Milly it is only a matter of time before the pressure on their friendship becomes intolerable. A powerful story for every modern woman, MISS YOU ALREADY charts the obstacles life throws in our path and celebrates the bond of true friendship that ultimately cannot be broken, even in life’s toughest moments.

Movie Review:

This reviewer is trying to figure out why his tear ducts weren’t flowing after watching Catherine Hardwicke’s latest film starring Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore. The 113 minute movie tells the story of two lifelong girlfriends as they experience the highs and lows of each other’s lives. Inseparable since they were young girls, their friendship is strong. Things change when one falls terminally ill.

Yup, you can already imagine how the ending will leave the more vulnerable viewer sniffing in tears.

Let’s see. A film with a storyline like that is best defined as a chick flick. Such movies are often heavy with emotion and contain themes which are relationship based. More importantly, as the slang term suggests, it is primarily directed toward the female gender. There you have it, the first reason why this male writer wasn’t crying buckets of tears after the movie.

Hardwicke, a Texasborn filmmaker is best known for her directing work on Twilight (2008). The opening weekend of the vampire film was the biggest opening ever for a female director. If you don’t already know, the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s bestselling novel was an international commercial success. It didn’t impress this columnist though – Bella’s dreary character wasn’t more appealing than the pale faced Edward Cullen. This probably is another justification why this reviewer wasn’t moved by Hardwicke’s latest directorial work.

There may be nothing severely out of place in this movie, because it does feature a solid script chronicling the two ladies’ lives, how one unconventionally marries a rock star and starts a family before being diagnosed with breast cancer, while the other tries her best to form a family and eventually has the opportunity to do so – just when she realises her best friend needs her emotionally.

The decision to cast Collette (Enough Said, The Way Way Back) is a perfect one. The Academy Award nominated Australian actress never disappoints, and she effortlessly plays this otherwise predictable character with powerful emotions. Collette makes audiences stay engaged with how her character is the more colourful one of the duo, how she fights to be a survivor, and how she eventually caves in to her illness.

Barrymore (Belnded, Big Miracle) is likeable as usual, and she is the sort of friend you want at your side when your life is in the dumps. Dominic Cooper (Dracula Untold, Need for Speed) and the ever reliable Paddy Considine (The World’s End, Hot Fuzz) play the protagonists’ male counterparts, and deliver commendable performances as well.     

This is obviously a film made by a woman about women for women, and while it may speak to the more emotional demographic, you have to admit it’s a conventional tearjerker involving a cancer stricken main character who will, well, eventually succumb to the unkind harsh reality of life. What’s there to celebrate about life then? As this film would tell you, friends and family. Call this writer a Scrooge, but messages like that, while wholesomely positive, does not seem to work on him (blame the gender if you will). What’s worth commenting is then the noteworthy performances from the cast Hardwicke had the fortune of working with. 

Movie Rating:

(A conventional tearjerker that features noteworthy performances from the cast, especially from the ever reliable Toni Collette)

Review by John Li