At times a film can feel so real that you forget that it is just that, a film. However, these gems are rarely produced in this current landscape of cinema. A film must comprise a certain honesty to hit this mark, an honesty that abundantly pours from Miss You Already.

The british flavoured dramedy follows life long friends Milly (Toni Collette) and Jess (Drew Berrymore) who have been through just about everything together. They face their biggest hurdle when Milly is diagnosed with breast cancer and is requested to begin chemotherapy immediately. Collette steals the show as the eccentric Milly. She commands the screen with a dedicated performance creating this beautiful mess of a character that you instantly fall in love with. Drew Berrymore, while given less to work with, delivers a sincere and captivating performance as Jess, the more level headed of the two. A nod must also be given to Dominic Cooper who delivers a rapturous performance as Milly’s husband Kit, and Jacqueline Bisset, who brings a marvelous comedic punch to the film as Miranda, Milly’s equally eccentric mother.

You can’t help but marvel at Catherine Hardwick’s ability to capture life in it’s rawest form on screen. There is a commonly untapped realism to the characters and situations that we follow in her films that allow us as an audience to truly connect and explore those moments that make life the chaotic dance of joy and pain – a dance that Miss You Already brazenly embraces from start to finish.

[star v=4]