Miss You Already

This review may contain spoilers!

I went in expecting nothing and came out emotionally wrecked. I would give Miss You Already a 7/10.

This film does wonders at talking about breast cancer and the ramifications of the disease; you see the progress of the lead as she deals with this disease and how others deal with her deterioration. It's quite powerful the way the story is told and the lengths that are gone to to pull off a convincing and moving film. The score and soundtrack for the film are perfect, the soundtrack especially just fits with scenes perfectly and brings a lot of life to them. The cinematography is fairly simple but shows some really clever and innovative shots throughout, it's clear the camera moves in such a visually stunning way when these shots are presented.

Dominic Cooper, who played Kit, was actually quite charming in this film; but what was great was how he showed the stress that was building within him. Mem Ferda, who played Ahmed, was a very minor but very fun role; I liked the empathy he shared as well as the comedic dance scene. Ryan Lennon Baker, who played Ben, was an incredible child actor; he was so full of energy and excelled at being a little rascal. Frances de la Tour, who played Jill, was a minor role with a huge presence in her scene; she was comedic but also brought some strong emotion to what is one of the best scenes of the film.

However the best performance came from Toni Collette, who played Milly. Was Milly the most likeable role in this film? No, certainly not but that's because Collette puts a lot of hard work into portraying someone who is realistic and convincing. You feel a lot of the pain that is portrayed, the grief and anguish is bleeding off of her in several scenes. Her erratic personality is exceptional and you can see the downward spiral of this role play out perfectly. Her outbursts and very natural responses to her disease is what makes Collette such a powerful actress in this role. Ultimately seeing her so fiery and fierce to being so weak and decrepit is a true testament as to how great of an actress Toni Collette is in this film.

What really bugged me about this film was the editing, some of the cuts were really poorly timed and pulled you out of the natural flow of a scene. The pacing for this film was really stretched out too, I think a few scenes could've been cut out to make it more tolerable. The comedy in this film, while strong, sometimes felt out of place or didn't land so soundly; in a very similar manner to how characters interacted with one another from time to time.

Drew Barrymore, who played Jess, just wasn't as funny as the rest of the cast so she failed in her line delivery a lot; she also didn't seem as invested in the emotional element of the film so her performance often fell short compared to the rest of the cast. Paddy Considine, who played Jago, was meant very clearly as a funny role but his jokes often came across awkwardly; he also completely failed at delivering strong moments of emotion across. Tyson Ritter, who played Ace, was the result of a rather annoying subplot about Milly cheating on Kit; Ritter's role and performance felt exceptionally artificial so this subplot didn't come off all that well. Jacqueline Bisset, who played Miranda, was a character who didn't feel real; she was this big over the top role that you just didn't believe in for the duration of the film. Honor Kneafsey, who played Scarlett, sounded like she was reading her lines for her major scenes; it was certainly one of the worst child actor performances I've seen this year.