Day 300: Miss You Already (January, 3)

Oh, Tony Collette, how disappointed with you I am.

When I chose to watch Miss You Already, I already was sure that it would be a sob fest. I even expected it to be bad, but not so bad as I thought it was at the end.

The thing is that productions about people dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatments changed from some time now. A more subtle and humane approach is more usual than the old melodrama that could be effective in bringing tears to the viewers' eyes, but actually don't tell much about what a person has to deal in front of such a reality.

It was clear to me that Catherine Hardwicke attempted to picture the "reality"" of a cancer patient. What she achieved, though, for me, was just the opposite. Her picture of marriage, family, friendship and the struggles with a disease could not be more delusional, disruptive, disrespectful even if this had been her intent. It is so, so dreadful, a true horror. She tried to depict every tiny difficult and intimate aspect of being ill, but it's so forced, a disaster. And something very far from reality, even if every cancer patient has a story of their own. The main problem here is that she prioritizes the situations, not the characters. And so you witness a lot of bizarre events happening to a non-person. That's very frustrating and silly.

Two positive aspects to me: Drew Barrymore's character looked a real person, and her relationship with her best friend's daughter at the end is truly sweet. And that's it. Tiny flashes of life that are not enough.The rest of this movie is plain stupid, as I've been saying to the friends that ask me about it. I was so mad when I left the theater, that I had no words better than stupid to describe it to a friend that I met in the cinema hall - another cancer survivor, who, I'm sure, would use the same word to refer to this movie if she choose to see it someday.

Muriel's Wedding... now, that's a movie! And a true friendship.

Miss You Already (I don't). Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. With:
Drew Barrymore, Toni Collette, Dominic Cooper.  Writer: Morwenna
Banks. UK, 2 015, Color (Cinema).