Wren (Nina Dobrev) and her three friends Cece (Stephanie Koenig), Laurel (Sherry Cola) and Jill (Hayley Magnus) vowed to be best friends forever, but 15 years later from that pact, the quartet are emotionally distant and barely in each other’s lives despite being physically close by. Wren’s stuck in the party phase of her life, while all her friends have moved on to other obligations, be it their families or new romantic relationships. Even when they’re hanging out, everyone’s just so focused on their own thing. So during her birthday celebration, Wren can’t take it anymore. She tells the biggest fib of fibs: she has cancer.
Of course her friends are empathetic and are immediately at her beck and call. They want to do whatever it takes to help her get through her cancer, like getting her to join a cancer support group or having a fundraiser to help her raise money for her medical bills. It’s there that she meets Leo (Brandon Mychal Smith), whose only existence in this film is to help Wren with her character arc and tell her what a scumbag she is for doing what she’s doing. He’s like a morality guide and love interest all rolled into one.
There’s quite a few scenes of spirited female bonding, and these scenes are the standout in an otherwise lukewarm movie. The references to A Walk to Remember? That gave me quite a chuckle, especially because that movie was big amongst us teen girls in the 2000s. But besides these scenes, there isn’t much else to the movie, which is unfortunate because the premise is relatable. As the seasons change, so do our friendships. We’ve all experienced that growing distance in friendships that have existed for years, and that can be hard to navigate.
Unfortunately, the movie is so intent on punishing Wren that we don’t get enough of the female camaraderie that should be at the centre of this movie. Yes, what she did isn’t right, but there should be a greater sense of poignancy regarding the reasons behind her decision, and not simply explained away as her being crazy or not empathetic enough. Koenig, Cola and Magnus are severely underutilised, all becoming merely footnotes in a movie supposedly about female friendship, which is a shame because the scenes that have all four of them are a delight. Dobrev is talented and gives Wren much needed vulnerability, but even she can’t wring much from Wren’s half-baked character arc. At the end, it’s unclear if Wren has actually made any changes to her life. Sure, she’s cleaned her room, but is that enough to show catharsis and redemption?
There’s been a whole string movies of late that focus on female protagonists stuck in a particular phase of life, like The Re-Education of Molly Singer and No Hard Feelings. Sick Girl doesn’t quite match No Hard Feelings with regard to its emotional spaces, but it is more relatable than The Re-Education of Molly Singer. Like I said, the premise has potential, but the execution doesn’t quite live up to what this movie could have been.
Review screener provided.
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