Filmmaker Gustavo Ron's film adaptation of Sally Nicholls's acclaimed 2008 novel centers on a painful subject—a child facing terminal illness. Sam (Robbie Kay) is a 12-year-old English lad with leukemia who knows he will not live to see adulthood. Thanks to the efforts of his extremely supportive best friend (Alex Etel) and the patience of his parents (Ben Chaplin and Emilia Fox), Sam is still able to enjoy as much out of life as he can. At the suggestion of his tutor (Greta Scacchi), Sam begins to produce a video journal that details his life while also presenting hard questions that do not have easy answers. While some of Sam's endeavors seem perfectly in sync with how children really behave—especially his fascination with UFOs and giddy joy in being able to take his first airplane ride—other aspects of Sam's video diary inevitably stray into territory that sounds less like your typical 12-year-old and more like the words of a writer trying to make a family-friendly film about a difficult issue. Still, while Ways to Live Forever occasionally feels like a disease-of-the-week TV movie, it nonetheless derives abundant energy from the honest and sincere performance by Kay as the child who cannot fully understand why he will not live to become an adult. A strong optional purchase. (P. Hall)
Ways to Live Forever
Kino Lorber, 99 min., PG-13, DVD: $29.95 Volume 30, Issue 2
Ways to Live Forever
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