Then Came You | Film Review

Hey Guys x

This has had a few different names. I think it was originally called 'Arrivals', and on Netflix (UK Netflix, anyway) it's called 'Departures' - so be aware of that if you want to watch it!

It's about a boy who make friends with a terminally ill girl, and together they try to help each other get the most out of life.

I didn't love this film, at all, for a few different reasons.

For a start, some things about it are extremely predictable. Every rom-com has that moment where the main characters discover something about each other, or something stupid happens, and rather than communicating, they break-up, even though we all know that they're getting back together by the end. While this doesn't happen in the way that you expect in this film, as soon as the main boy says (or doesn't say) something, you know exactly that this is the thing that will break them up, and just waiting for it to happen was eye-roll inducing because you always knew that it would soon come out. And in addition to that, the other person's reaction to his admission is weird. She was more upset about the fact that he's apparently 'just like other guys' than the actual lie in and of itself. The reaction was purely the writers trying to cause drama when the film was already dramatic enough.

Then there was Skye, played by Maisie Williams. Her character was just so unlikeable and extremely off-putting. The only reason that she is the protagonist of this story is because she has cancer - the film uses this as her only redeeming quality. It would have been great if she started off this way and then her character developed into someone that the audience could love, but even in her vulnerable moments, her character is still off-putting.

There was also little chemistry between Skye and Calvin (Asa Butterfield), and I'm talking about completely platonic chemistry - there was none. I couldn't work out why they were friends, other than her forcing herself into his life (which could have been endearing but really wasn't).

But speaking of relationships with no chemistry, the prize for that goes to Calvin and Izzy (Nina Dobrev). Their relationship was just weird. Not only the physical age difference (which in the film is only about 2/3 years, but in real life is a lot bigger and it looks that way), but because of how young Calvin looks, and the clear differences in their maturity levels. In the beginning, it feels like she's pandering to him, so when something actually begins to happen, I was completely thrown off course.

Another thing that bugged me was Calvin's hypochondria. This is mentioned in the official description of the film, so you assume that this will be a big thing that he has to deal with. But the hypochondria, which could have been used to really set this film apart from others of a similar genre, was only mentioned in the first 20 minutes of the film, and then it was like everyone completely forgot about it. Why make that a huge point of the description if you don't explore it?

I completely understand what the director was going for when he decided to make friendship the main point of this film, and by the end, it does work well. It just takes way too long to get there.
But the fact that it's about friendship above all does make it original, and sets it apart from other movies.

Overall, it got a lot of good reviews, so clearly some people see something in it that I didn't. For me, though, it doesn't make as much of an impact as other 'ill teenager' movies, and I didn't feel any type of way about any of the characters by the time it finished.

4/10

Lou