Nearly a year after being cast, Dakota Fanning and Jeremy Irvine‘s “Now Is Good” screened this past week at Cannes Film Festival. One of our most anticipated films of 2012 and based on Jenny Downham’s novel “Before I Die”, the film follows 17 year old Tessa, a terminally ill teenage girl, and her desire to experience life to the fullest before she dies.
It’s a decent performance from Fanning, whose journey from child actress to movie star has been patchy. Fanning’s Tessa is played as mad at the world, unable to come to terms with her illness as she deals with an overbearing father and a mother who can’t deal with her daughter’s imminent death. Unfortunately for Fanning, she is hindered by a poor script which doesn’t allow us to feel any sympathy for Tessa.
Irvine impressed, especially after middling reviews last year for his feature film debut “War Horse.” He showed genuine emotion throughout, in particular during a fraught scene with Fanning as he admits that after losing his father, he may not be able to stay and watch as he loses her as well. Kaya Scodelario’s performance as Tessa’s wild child best friend Zoey is also disappointing following her impressive turn in Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights” last year, perhaps in part because Zoey seemed too similar to her well-known, fan-favorite “Skins” character Effy, something Scodelario could do well to stay away from, particularly when she is still trying to prove her range as an emerging actress.
It’s only the second feature film for director Ol Parker, whose first effort was “Imagine Me & You” back in 2005. Unfortunately, “Now Is Good” doesn’t do much to show Parker’s growth and promise. The film pieced together badly, with scenic shots of Brighton being used to portray a passage of time – straight out of film school – and doesn’t make the best use of its impressive cast, which also includes Brit stars Paddy Considine and Olivia Williams. This could have been an interesting adaptation, and a good re-introduction for Parker. Instead, “Now Is Good” is no more than an average, melodramatic, teen rom-com.
C-
“Could have been…” is my estimate of far too many movies. Plot holes and too much unneeded glitz are the usual culprits.
I deliberately haven’t read “Before I Die” ahead of seeing the movie, but, from the buyer reviews I saw at amazon, it looks like an exceptional novel; it’s an outrage if an opportunity for an exceptional movie has been wasted. I have to note, however, that, several months ago, I read a comment by a woman who had seen the movie because of a screening for a Brit film awards committee. As I recall (I don’t have the link) she said that she came out of the theater quite speechless, so, I’ll still hold on to some hope. (Not a whole lot though; Rebecca’s review seems very believable–to me anyway.) It’s also frustrating, that, although filmed last summer and with a trailer released, there’s still no U.S. release date showing at IMDb.
Looking forward, I would be blown over if the Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson movie “Effie’ is ruined. With an excellent basic biopic story (I’ve read the recent Effie biography) and a screenplay by Thompson, such a huge opportunity for Dakota couldn’t go wrong. Right?
Another thing. Your comment about Kaya is insightful. It sounds like she needs to take a page from Dakota’s playbook: don’t do the same role twice. One of the reasons I admire Dakota so much is her ability to create a new persona for a new role. I use Meryl Streep as the gold standard for this type of acting. Dakota has not–and I hope she never does–just repeat a trademark film persona. An actor can be quite successful doing it, but I just don’t see it as the best in acting.
The trailer looked bad anyways.
Please don’t use the word “Brit” is an an offensive racial epithet originally popularised by terrorists who believed the only good “Brit” was a dead Brit.
It’s Olivia Williams not Olivia Colman
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