Shallow show

To be a great teacher, to play one-on-one with one of the New York Knicks, to try a stand-up comedy act, to find true love… ‘The Life List’ charts the journey of Alexandra, aka Alex, on the wrong side of thirties. She is always in a mess, always late, is working for her mother and settling in life, rather than striving for her true potential. Well, this is until she is forced to complete the wish list that she penned as a 13-year-old.

Yes, Alex has changed now, but this is the only way to get the inheritance her deceased mother left her. Each act that she crosses off her list gets her a pre-recorded DVD by her mother to help her navigate life.

The story is based on the 2013 bestseller ‘The Life List’ by Lori Nelson Spielman. The ‘Definitely, Maybe’ fame Adam Brooks directs this romantic comedy. The premise is pretty, even if predictable, and comes with a love quiz. The story runs smoothly. Even as devastating an event as the mother’s death doesn’t send you crying, for, it is done in a very aesthetically calming way.

Production quality is high. Each frame is stylish — whether it is Alex meeting her biological dad in a club, the New York City in the backdrop, or a quick in and out of the picturesque Vermont!

Connie Britton, the mother, looks elegant; Sofia Carson as the daughter is lovely. But it’s a film without any highs and lows. Barring a scene or two, it doesn’t really touch your core. It is also a very crowded story with so many people and so many things to cross off the list. Still, you notice other details. Done in a warm tone, the colour grading is exquisite. The songs, like Ting Tong’s ‘That’s Not My Name’, and ‘Our House Is a Very, Very, Very Fine House’, fit perfectly in situations.

However, when it comes to acting, Carson, who started off as a Disney star, is rather stiff. You imagine this is so because she is at a crossroads of life, but it doesn’t change much even as the plot progresses. Britton looks the part of a self-made woman, but sure doesn’t seem stressed for someone about to die.

Among the three dudes that Alex dates, each gets his own quirk. Finn (Michael Rowland) is a good-at-heart gamer; Garrett (Sebastian de Souza) is a self-absorbed attorney; and Brad (Kyle Allen), the man chosen by the mother to execute the will, is handsome outside and inside.

All three of them do reasonably well in the stipulated time that they appear on screen. Maria Jung as Nina appears briefly but is a sheer joy!

There are so many moments with the potential to be so much more, but stop at being just pictorial. Don’t get mistaken, it is no ‘P.S. I Love You’. A stunningly shot film that’s shallow within, it is pretty passable.

Movie Review