Taglines: Live every moment, love every minute.
Tessa (Dakota Fanning), a teen with terminal acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and her best friend Zoey fulfills an undisclosed bucket list before her impending death. One night, both attempt to engage in sex with their partner.
Tessa goes on a talk show with her over bearing single father where she pokes fun at her terminal diagnosis and approaches it with humor. Tessa is loving and caring towards her brother Cal whom she feels guilty for stealing her parent’s attention and gives him days that are all about him while dealing with her father trying to treasure every moment he has left with his daughter while her mother is supportive, but is rarely there for her.
Tessa gets the last of her chemotherapy equipment removed from her body so she can live the rest of her days normally. Tessa meets her new neighbor Adam who is taking care of his handicapped widowed mother while putting his own life on hold such as going to college, and Tessa instantly befriends him. Adam joins Tessa and Zoey on their adventures where he takes care of both of them while they take shrooms before going into the forest and finds great ocean side cliffs, followed by going to a party where Tessa and Adam start developing feelings for each other. Tessa and Zoey continue to fulfill Tessa’s bucket list by stealing from a store, but while being caught and Tessa discovers Zoey stole a pregnancy test revealing she may be pregnant.
Tessa and Adam go to the beach together and begin a romantic relationship. Tessa introduces Adam to her father who disapproves the relationship due to the fact Tessa’s health is currently in steep decline due to her stopping chemotherapy. Tessa’s father berates Adam saying that Tessa is dying and thinks Adam is just wasting his time and causing more problems which causes Adam to leave. Tessa takes Zoey to a clinic where Zoey’s pregnancy is confirmed with Zoey not sure if she will keep the baby.
Tessa and Adam attempt to go on a regular date, but Tessa breaks out in a huge nose bleed that leads to her hospitalization with a shocked Adam leaving Tessa with her mother to call 911. While she is hospitalized, Adam begins painting her name all over the city so when Tessa leaves the hospital she can see her name is all over the city fulfilling one of her bucket list items that everyone will know she existed leaving Tessa satisfied and smiling.
Zoey reveals to Tessa she is keeping the baby and will be due in April of that year. Tessa and Adam begin spending every night together so Tessa won’t be alone at night anymore and do it even after Tessa’s father refuses the request due to their age and what Tessa is going through, but relents after Tessa reveals she is willing to take the risk despite the burden coming due to her impeding death.
Tessa visits her doctor who reveals that her cancer is causing her immune system to collapse and her life will soon end and reveals she will not make it to April to see Zoey’s baby being born. Tessa leaves to find Adam to comfort her but finds out that Adam went to a college orientation where he is planning on going to in the fall. Tessa has a complete melt down in her room and destroys her room which reveals the bucket list painted on her wall hidden by a blanket.
Her father comes home and sees her bucket list which causes her father to break down because she excluded him from helping her fulfill the bucket list over the fact he is losing his daughter and wants to spend as much time as possible with her, and Tessa comforts and apologizes to her father. Tessa escapes to the ocean cliffs where Adam finds her and they have a cathartic moment together where Tessa gives Adam her blessing to fall in love in college after her passing.
Now Is Good is a 2012 British teen drama film directed by Ol Parker. Based on Jenny Downham’s 2007 novel Before I Die, it was adapted by Parker who had recently written the screenplay for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The film, which stars Dakota Fanning, Jeremy Irvine and Paddy Considine, centres on Tessa, a girl who is dying of leukaemia and tries to enjoy her remaining life as much as she possibly can.
Film Review for Now Is Good
Dakota Fanning goes British: it’s a bold move for both star and filmmakers in this tween weepie based on the novel Before I Die. Fanning’s accent is distractingly posh as she plays newly rebellious Tessa, a heroine who is intent on taking drugs, losing her virginity and generally cramming all her teen rebellion into the months of life she has left.
Still, it’s refreshing that this is no dying-girl schmaltzfest, at least in the party and drug-taking scenes. There’s a gently irreverent sense of humour pervading them as well as those with Olivia Williams, who plays Tessa’s Ab Fab mother, a free-thinking hedonist who takes an amusingly relaxed view of her daughter’s ambitions. More sceptical is Williams’ estranged husband, played straight by Paddy Considine as a furrowed-browed father who’d rather wrap his dying daughter in cotton wool than see her out drinking with friends.
Conveniently, a middle ground comes with the arrival of new neighbour Adam (War Horse’s Jeremy Irvine), a sensitive teenager who’s up for long walks and the long haul as well as popping Tessa’s cherry. Despite the odd wobble there’s something a little too virtuous about Adam: the romance is sweet but never feels sufficiently endangered by anything other than Tessa’s sadly inevitable death. And aside from her tragic fate, Tessa’s not an easy character to warm to: perhaps it’s the script, which fails to get under her skin, along with the nagging feeling that Fanning isn’t 100 per cent comfortable on British soil.
Now Is Good is perhaps most memorable in the brief but heart-wrenching hospital scenes: when Tessa’s warring parents quietly acknowledge each other’s strengths it’s moving and shows off the talents of the more experienced adult cast. For all the film’s flaws, moments like these can’t fail to hit you where it hurts.
Now Is Good (2012)
Directed by: Ol Parker
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Josef Altin, Jeremy Irvine, Paddy Considine, Olivia Williams, Kaya Scodelario, Edgar Canham, Julia Ford, Julian Wadham, Rakie Ayola, Simon Wilson, Susan Brown
Screenplay by: Jenny Downham
Production Design by: Amanda McArthur
Cinematography by: Erik Wilson
Film Editing by: Peter Lambert
Costume Design by: Suzie Harman
Set Decoration by: Bridget Menzies
Art Direction by: John Reid
Music by: Dustin O’Halloran
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving illness, sexuality, and drugs, and for brief strong language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: August 31, 2012 (Los Angeles), September 19, 2012 (United Kingdom)
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