“Life is beautiful and messy and complicated and sometimes it doesn’t look the way you think it’s supposed to look and that’s okay. Keep going and always be brave.”
This was the whole message of this film. I think that the established film critics have got this wrong and showing a bit of snobbery and ignoring what audiences, perhaps secretly, like. After all, it has a 7.0 rating on IMDB and 72% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It is based on a best-selling novel by Lori Nelson Spielman and Adam Brookes who adapted is a great writer and director, and this feature reflects that. You would recognise his films such as Definitely Maybe, Wimbledon, French Kiss and the recent directorial feature is Partner Track on Netflix.
It is a film about the experiences of grief and not living a best life but also reconnecting with family, love and the courage to strive to be your best self rather what you settled for.
I was a bit sceptical that Sofia Carson was the right fit for this as she is a Disney star, but we have seen it time and time again that they proof people wrong and that is what she did here. Sofia plays Alex who loves wearing a band t-shirt and is a massive basketball fan and her mother is her best friend. She is in a mess and says the wrong thing socially and can’t get her life in check.
Alex’s boyfriend who works in a record store wants to develop a video game while Alex has abandoned her dream of becoming a great teacher and has settled for working as head of marketing for her mother’s cosmetics company.
Her mother (Connie Britton) shares some devasting news to Alex at a family party that she has cancer. It then transitions to her mother’s funeral and Alex is trying to pick up the pieces of her life.
The family goes to an office to see the lawyer about her mother’s will. The lawyer is conveniently cute (Kyle Allen) and is incredibly charming. He reveals to Alex that her mum hasn’t left her any share in the company. Instead, her mother had a secret plan for her. Alex must do the things on a life list that she made when she was 13 and when she ticks each item off, she gets a DVD that her mum made for her before she died. This is how she finds out her inheritance will be restored once she finishes it.
It is interesting to see the dynamic between mother and daughter but also the chemistry between the all the love interests. Some people might say that the film surrounds itself with Alex’s love life over her personal growth and her career but at the end of the day the genre is a rom com, and I feel they get balance right.
The Life List is a genuine, kind-hearted film that you can sit and watch during a summer’s day, and it benefits from the scenic locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan that makes it more authentic.
It is one of those rom com films that makes your heart full and want to make a life list yourself to keep your dreams alive.
A guilty pleasure.