MOVIE REVIEW
“Ways to Live Forever”
Grade: B
Starring Ben Chaplin, Emilia Fox, Greta Scacchi. Directed by Gustavo Ron.
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements. At xxx theaters. 1 hour, 30 minutes
Bottom line: Contemplates dying with quirky intelligence
By Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
A little wan but a lot likable, Gustavo Ron’s “Ways to Live Forever” is a forthright and surprisingly buoyant drama about facing death before you have really lived.
And not just because Sam (Robbie Kay), a 12-year-old with leukemia, is determined to make the most of his final months. Or because Mr. Ron (working from the novel by Sally Nicholls) infuses the story with forced uplift. Rather, everyone involved, from Sam’s attentive but far from clingy parents (Emilia Fox and Ben Chaplin) to his sensible best friend (Alex Etel) to his cheerfully punkish district nurse (Natalia Tena), seems incapable of being maudlin. To Sam, the end of life is a mystery he’s compelled to solve.
Unsentimental but never callous, this British-Spanish production gingerly addresses terminal illness in ways that won’t traumatize your tween. Brief bursts of animation jolly things along as Sam records a video diary of last-minute wishes (ride in an airship; behave like a teenager) and last-call concerns (how do you know when you’ve died?). The screenplay struggles to make room for his shamefully underwritten mother, though his father enjoys a nicely nuanced arc from stiff denial to just-in-time acceptance.
Filmed in a gently clouded English suburb, “Ways to Live Forever” contemplates the grave with quirky intelligence. Youngsters beginning to ask questions like Sam’s could do worse than watch him seek the answers.
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