CINEMA Tears and fears

Cinema

Ciara Galvin

THERE’S nothing better than catching up with your best friend. That one person that knows pretty much everything about you, from the weird quirks, to the darkest secrets. You’ve laughed together, cried together and on more than one occasion probably got drunk together.

It’s hard to imagine your life without them.

That’s the very scenario that Drew Barrymore’s character ‘Jess’ has to face in tear-jerker ‘Miss You Already’. Jess and Milly, played by the excellent but sometimes underrated Toni Collette, are inseparable. Milly was the party animal who has now settled down into the seemingly perfect life, a rockstar husband and two loving children, topped off with a successful marketing role for good measure.

Jess lives a simpler life, working in a community garden and living on a boat with hubby Jago, a rather tired looking Paddy Considine.

As a disclaimer I must let you know that the big issue dealt with throughout the film is cancer, and no, this is not a spoiler, the film title is ‘Miss You Already’, for goodness sake!

We’re transported to a doctor’s surgery where the confident Milly strolls in to go through the motions of receiving what she assumes will be clear test results, but unfortunately that is not the case.

From here on in it’s a rollercoaster of tears and laughter as Milly comes to grips with battling her condition, coming to terms with her changing looks and the reality of everyday life as someone with cancer.

This is portrayed unflinchingly, from the vomit inducing chemotherapy sessions, to the experience of losing your hair. If the film achieves anything, it’s the way it shows the reality of dealing with breast cancer, the loss, the bandages, the difficulties in loving your body post-op. At times it was hard to watch, to see someone as independent as the character of Milly become a vulnerable shadow of herself.

Collette is wonderful in the role, well able to pull off the ‘f**k you’ attitude of Milly and executes the more testing scenes beautifully. With the nature of the story of course Collette has the more meatier role, going off the rails in times of despair and pulling off some great comedic moments. One of these moments sees her tell husband Kit (Dominic Cooper) to hold her handbag, post mastectomy surgery. The handbag she refers to turns out to be a drain tube for her wounds.

Barrymore puts in a solid performance as the martyr friend, putting her own life on hold in order to be there for her friend, despite having problems of her own.

The onscreen friendship between the two women works. They are rude to each other and insult each other like only two best friends can.

While the tough topic of cancer and its affects on all those around the person who is effected was dealt with the best way it could, the storyline at times was very predictable.

A mad ‘Notting Hill’ style dash to a hospital was thrown in for good measure, as too was the scene with Jago attempting to troubleshoot his technology issues from an oil rig.

Did I enjoy it? That’s a hard question to answer. The film did move me. Not only did I cry like a baby, it also had me questioning my own mortality and that of my nearest and dearest for a time afterwards.