Milly (Toni Collette) and Jess (Drew Barrymore) are inseparable best friends – so why does the opening scene feature Jess giving birth on her own? Has her husband Jago (Paddy Considine) met a grim fate on an oil rig? Has Milly succumbed to her long-running battle with cancer? The fact that these are options should give you a pretty good idea of this film’s “smiling through the tears” tone, as the two best friends support and infuriate each other through a range of life’s crisis.
For a no-holds-barred weepie, this at least largely avoids being too soft-focus: the many unpleasantries of cancer treatment are clearly displayed, while Jess and Jago’s struggles to fall pregnant are equally rigorous. Jess herself is basically saint-like while Milly is an edgier piece of work, but Collette and Barrymore have great chemistry together and make the friendship believable even when logic would suggest their different lifestyles would have pulled them apart years ago.
There’s next to no suspense here – without that opening scene there’d be none at all – but that’s not what this is about: you’re here to see best friends struggle through tough times, and it delivers in spades.
Reviewed by Anthony Morris