‘The Life List’ review: A charming and heart wrenching look at grief and life
4/5 small band shows
Grief can do a lot to a person. It can remind us to embrace our time when we have it, it can weigh us down, or, at times, it can do both at the same time. That’s what Netflix’s The Life List reminds us.
Alex (Sofia Carson) is a young woman who once had big ambitions but then she began to settle. When her mother (Connie Britton) ends up getting sick, Alex is faced with an impossible task: Do all her mother’s instructions in order to get the money she left her. The tasks are all based on a “life list” that Alex made when she was a teenager and it forces her to learn how to play piano, connect with her family, and embrace love inside of settling.
With all the makings of a classic rom-com, including a lovely little love triangle between Brad (Kyle Allen) and Garrett (Sebastian de Souza). But what makes this more than just another Netflix movie you’ll watch, this is cute, and move on from all boils down to Carson’s performance as Alex.
Whenever movies focus on the grieving process, it can be either hit or miss. You might think that it can feel like emotional manipulation. All of us have had to grieve something in our lives and that then makes movies centered on that grief feel like a cheap way to get the audience invested in your characters. With The Life List, the entire premise of the movie is not entirely beholden to Alex’s relationship with her mother but, instead, her relationship with herself.
We often see grief as a reflection of someone else’s impact on our lives, and rightfully so, but I do love that The Life List allows that grief to also open a new lease on life for Alex.
Live your life while you can
For the most part, The Life List is cute. At its core, it is a romantic dramedy that reminds us all to not let life slip by while we worry about things that don’t ultimately matter. But it is also emotionally charged. Within moments of the movie, I found myself crying over Alex’s lost and then her subsequent journey to believing in herself and what she’s capable of.
I wish her friends were more involved and that we spent more time with Alex actually reconnecting with her brothers but that is me nitpicking the movie. For the most part, it is sweet and cute and that’s what really matters.
So if you are looking for a good cry and a movie that will make you want to call your own mother, look no further than Netflix’s The Life List.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
