Irreplaceable You

I'm not sure I could have fully appreciated the nuances and impact that the story conveyed without having personal experience of family members, and close friends suffering cancer.

Once again Gugu Mbatha-Raw gives us a barnstorming performance, showing a full range of emotions and character flaws. The stages of grief, from bargaining, anger, disbelief, through to expectance beautifully displayed. The whole story arc of trying to control the future for others rang true with my own experiences.

The supporting cast were all on form, especially Christopher Walken & Jacki Weaver, stealing most scenes that they were in with bittersweet irony, and tender emotions.

Ultimately some aspects around the story of the perfect couple together from the age of 8, annoyed me a bit, they just didn't quite seem plausible, but by the end of the film, if you're not bawling your eyes out, you have the emotional range of a teaspoon!

The premise of this movie had me very excited to watch. I am a sucker for chick flicks, romance movies and tear jerkers so this looked like it would be right in my wheelhouse. Unfortunately this never reached the heights it had the potential to go.

The movie is constructed as a tear jerker but while it gets close at times, they never do a good enough job of creating a close enough relationship with us and the main characters for us to care enough as we would in other great sad movies.

While Gugu Mbatha-Raw is fantastic in this movie, Michael Huisman's performance really drags the movie down as he is infuriating with a lack of emotion about the situation, both lack of sadness but also anger at Abbie's decisions and he just doesn't care enough which makes it hard to invest.

The decision in the middle of the movie that Sam makes is just plain stupid and left me not wanting him to end happy at all. The movie tried too hard to be different when they already had a great idea with a fantastic actress that would have worked if they hadn't tried too hard to be unique.

The supporting parts were well done, particularly Christopher Walken, and I connected much more with his and Abbie's relationship in the movie than I did with Abbie and Sam's.

A final nitpick was that they made the strange decision not to have Abbie appear physically sick at all. Her appearance barely changes throughout and it just makes no sense and once again loses an opportunity for us to connect.

Some great acting overall but it gets dragged down by a bad performance from Michael Huisman and poor writing. So much potential and it is my favorite type of genre but really disappointed with the outcome.

I dare say anyone who has reached middle age has several friends or acquaintances who have suffered and died from long term diseases, and I'm sure that no two peoples attitude to dying would be the same either. There lies the problem with this movie. I can't say I recognise any friends in the characters portrayed, but I'm sure others do. Complaining about a movie for not being real simply because it's not your reality doesn't make the writer or director wrong. The one similarity between all humans is our difference.

Irreplaceable You is the story of a couple who had been in love since childhood, but their worlds came crashing down when Abbie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is diagnosed with terminal cancer. One of the biggest issues with this film was such a contrast in the tone, because a story about a couple torn apart by cancer seems sad, but the first hour is really upbeat and feels like a romantic comedy, glazing over the impending death like a formality. The tone eventually shifts to a more somber setting, but this contrast was really off-putting and distracted from the movie. That being said, the rest of the film was pretty good. Christopher Walken had a touching lovable character and the two main actors clearly had great on screen chemistry with each other. It was a touching film that really worked the emotions in the latter half, but the first half is so different it barely feels like the same movie. Alone, each half is really good, but together it can be conflicting. Overall a great netflix film for movie night with a significant other. Definitely worth the watch.

3/22/18. While the acting was really good (though overdramatic at times), it was really, really depressing. Not sure if this is even a therapeutic movie to watch for those in Mbatha-Raw's circumstances. I get it that she was trying her best to gain some control over a situation in which she has very little control over, it was really depressing nevertheless.