A cheesy cross of a melodrama

Once upon a time, Netflix’s original films promised to bring the cinematographic experience to your home. Nowadays, the streamer is more inclined to deliver films that look like a copy of a copy, covering the genres of Science fiction blockbusters has Ya fantasies And Roma-transplants in the form of a characteristic. Now, Netflix moves to a living territory with a romantic melodrama cried based on the novel by Lori Nelson Spielman in 2013, Life list. Like many movies for life, Life list Starts with a dead mom and ends with a declaration of romantic love. And like many films for life, its history Sappy is served with the aesthetics of an automotive insurance advertisement which occasionally has glows of heart.

The mother in question is Elizabeth Rose by Connie Britton, who leaves behind a last testament and unusual will after her death of cancer. While his adult sons and their women get their inheritance right away, his 30 -year -old daughter without goal, Alex (Sofia Carson) must go through a glove to receive his. More specifically, Alex had to spend the following year completing the ambitious “life list” that she wrote for herself at the age of 13. The articles on the list include cohesia units like going to a Mosh-Pit and playing a stand-up during an open microphone evening, as well as bigger dreams like restarting your teaching career and finding a real love.

Each time that Alex checks an article on the list, she receives a message from pre -recorded DVD from her mother, who tries to guide her daughter towards the ride of the young spark she lost in adulthood. Alex’s self-discovery discovery journey includes drama with his father (José Zúñiga), discover buried family secrets and bond with a student in difficulty. But, as with a lot of film for life (or a Netflix film with an identity crisis), everything comes down to a love triangle: Alex will end up with his British colleague dashing Garrett (Sebastian de Souza) or the Dweeby-Hot, Just-A-Friend Lawyer Brad (Kyle Allen), who helped his mother?

The fact that the plot is quite predictable is not intrinsically a problem. The writer / director Adam Brooks did an excellent job by raising familiar tropes in his vehicle Ryan Reynolds 2008 Certainly, maybewho is quietly One of the best Roma Roma of the last 20 years. The problem is that Life list Too often, he finds it difficult to reconfigure his well -known tropes in something that feels alive and human, for which we come to romantic melodramas.

It is at least partly a budgetary problem. The charm of Certainly, maybe came the unexpected nuance she found in a brilliant studio Rom-Com package. Life list was clearly carried out on a comparison shoestring budget, which affects everything, from the caliber of distribution to time devoted to shooting compositions. What the film wins by turning on the spot in New York, it loses in a hollow opening act which is too often based on photos of Master inert where all the actors are piled up in the frame as a room.

At two o’clock Life list is too long and filled with sub -intrigues that may have been significant in the novel, but it is enough to muddy the waters here. (This includes a women’s refuge which inexplicably has a classroom for high school students and a romantic rival that literally detaches from the screen the second where it no longer needs.) Life list It is better as you go, it requires high tolerance for slow cinema before it reaches the strongest things.

However, despite these considerable obstacles, there is a reason why the life formula has endured so long. Manipulation may be obvious, but it is always difficult not to choke while looking at Britton to deliver melancholy maternal advice and affirmed by life. After a slow start, Carson and Allen end up developing beautiful chemistry in the third act of the film. (Allen, in particular, has a real potential of the man of the first name.) Even the cheesy of the film “Reclaimment Your One Precious Life!” The message has the potential to resonate with those who are not intolerant with lactose with cinematographic cheese.

All this does Life list Not a particularly bad film, but a film for a very specific audience. Just like a cross point “Live, Laugh, Love” has its place in a certain type of house, Life list In his place of cathartic tearful for those who care more stories affirming life than quality cinema. The skeptics which are not already won over to the genre romantic melodrama, however, should cross this on the list.

Director: Adam Brooks
Writer: Adam Brooks
With: Sofia Carson, Kyle Allen, Connie Britton
Release date: March 28, 2025 (Netflix)