Miss You Already - Film Review

Miss You Already - Film Review

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Posted 2015-10-13 by Jenfollow

Starring Drew Barrymore, Toni Collette, Dominic Cooper, Paddy Considine, Tyson Ritter and Jacqueline Bissett, Miss You Already is a bit of a tear jerker without being soppy. I suggest you take a packet of tissues.

Jess (Drew Barrymore) and Milly (Toni Collette) have been best friends forever; ever since Jess came to Milly's school in England from America. They grew up sharing everything from secrets to first kisses. There's not many pictures they're not in together. Milly is the wild one and the ring leader, with a mother (Miranda played by Jacqueline Bisset) who's barely there, away enjoying the fruits of her labour as an actor.


From rock chick to responsible mum and PR high flyer with two kids, Milly is living the dream along with her goth husband turned good father and husband Kit (Dominic Cooper). Jess on the other hand is down to earth, environmentally conscious and lives on a boat with her partner Jago (Paddy Considine), trying very hard to conceive. Finally Jess gives way to Jago and pursues IVF treatment, for which he must work away to afford it. Milly on the other hand is diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. She keeps it to herself and mulls over it for a whole week before she lets her family and her best friend know.


This is a story of the unshakable bond between women and best friends. Milly and Jess must now deal with life and death. Finding a balance is difficult for Jess. The diagnosis has not changed Milly. She's still running the show while Jess follows. She's so busy keeping Milly happy, she fails to mention her pregnancy because she doesn't want to flaunt that all is going well for her while Milly's life is going down the tube.

Still vain and selfish, Milly is not interested in being pitied. Under the bravado and the tough facade, she's vulnerable and learning to deal with and accept what is happening to her. Her husband is not being very supportive, though not on purpose, as he himself wrestles with the new situation, trying to go past the revulsion he feels.

As for Jess' partner Jago, he throws his hands up in the air as Jess is never around and forever running to meet Milly's every need, including going for a drive a couple of hundred miles and more, to the moors. Once there, a few truths come to light, which has the girls reassessing their friendship.


This movie is touching because it doesn't go for the cliche tear jerker scenes. Toni Collette draws you in with her performance to feel the rawness of the harrowing situation her character is going through. Drew Barrymore on the other hand is in her familiar comfortable role of being a very likeable human being. Dominic Cooper and Paddy Considine are merely the supporting cast and I guess rightly so, as this is the tale of a lasting relationship between two women. What touches your heart and leaves you with a sadness long after the movie is over is the fact that you're left wrestling with thoughts of loss and mortality. About life and situations thrust upon one that just has to be dealt with as it takes its course.

You could say there are a lot of scenes that are at odds with reality; like paying for a taxi to drive over 200 miles each way, or that a bad boy goth husband/rocker could grow from there to become this handsome, hot, wonderful husband and father. Let's not rip into the fabric; just enjoy the relationship between the girls, have a good cry (my mother always said sometimes there's nothing like a good cry to make you feel better...really mum?) and fantasise that all men go from a wild child to a handsome, hot, perfect husband. It's almost unnecessary to have Jacqueline Bisset there (after all they don't go into Drew Barrymore's family) aside from the fact that it was lovely to see her on screen again, and at 71, she's still one hot mama!




Below is R.E.M's Losing my religion, to which Milly and Jess rock out to.


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87635 - 2023-06-11 07:41:11

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