Miss You Already

 MISS YOU ALREADY

Director : Catherine Hardwicke
Year : 2015
Genre : Comedy
Rating : ***1/2

Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore deliver strong performances in Catherine Hardwicke's 'Miss You Already', a flawed but incredibly affecting drama/comedy that bravely manages to laugh in the face of dire adversity and explore the morbid themes of cancer and terminal illness in a much more frank way than a large majority of its recent thematic counterparts. Focusing on the relationship struggles between two life long friends when the dreaded disease rears its ugly head, 'Miss You Already' portrays the agonising battle with breast cancer in an honest and effectively direct manner while still maintaining the core aesthetics of a trendy and populist mainstream comedy movie.  At times, the erratic antics of Collette's stricken Milly feels rather forced while the predominantly comedic tone of the picture does sometimes detract from the more sober elements of the story. However, the cast which also includes Dominic Wood, Jacqueline Basset and Paddy Considine are consistently great while Morwenna Banks' highly admirable screenplay, while over the top at points, manages to have an incredible amount of emotional heft and spiritual believability.