Genre: Drama
Director: Julianne Moore
Writer: Jimmy Ellis
Cast: Sadie Sink, Julianne Moore, Steve Carell, Asher Angel, Raffey Cassidy, Julie Walters, Michael Caine, Lauren Cohan, Nicholas Hamilton
Plot: Alicia Rogers (Sadie Sink) lives in Sheridan, Wyoming. She is a normal, 17 year old girl. She is attending Sheridan High School, where she has great connections with her 2 best friends. The popular and modern girl, Eliza Kos (Raffey Cassidy) and the edgy, emo teen boy, Mike Lewis (Asher Angel). The three of them form a strange, but lovely trio.
It’s a beautiful, sunny, spring day as Alicia wakes up to the relaxing music which is played from her alarm. Sun shines into her room through the peek in the curtain. Alicia gets up, stretches her body, yawns and then opens the curtains. She looks outside at her hometown. People are already walking on the streets, but Alicia is lucky that she doesn’t have to be at school until 11:00 AM. All of a sudden, her phone rings. She walks up to her desk and answers it.
“Hello?” she hears from the other side of the phone. “It’s Mike.” She greets Mike, and wishes him a good morning. Mike giggles very short. He asks her if the call woke her up, but Alicia assures him that it isn’t a problem. Mike tells her that there will be a new floorplan in class. Alicia is very excited about this. Their class has a regular floorplan every semester, which basically means that they are obliged to sit in a certain spot, next to someone they don’t get to choose. Every class at their school has a mentor. A mentor is the spokesperson for the class and has more personal interaction with the students. Their mentor is their English teacher, Mrs. Bennett (Julie Walters). Last semester, Alicia was forced to sit next to the class’ bully, Dominic Burns (Nicholas Hamilton). Now, she’s happy she is gonna sit somewhere else. She thanks Mike for the news and says that she’ll see him at school. Then, she hangs up the phone.
Alicia goes downstairs, and sees that her parents are already up. She gives her dad, Maurick Rogers (Steve Carell) a high-five and hugs her mom, Diane Rogers (Julianne Moore). She sits down with them to eat breakfast, then, she grabs her bag which is already next to the front door, says goodbye to her parents and starts walking to school. Her school is very close to home, so that’s very handy.
She arrives at school a little while later and is immediately met by Eliza. She updates her about the latest gossip and rumors that go around the school. Alicia listens with interest, but suddenly, everything around her start to feel a bit faint, and her hearing is worse, as she hears a peep noise in her ear. She faintly hears Eliza asking her if she’s okay before everything turns back to normal. She tells her she’s fine and she drinks some water.
When they arrive in Mrs. Bennett’s class, they’re happy to see that they’re placed next to each other, with Mike behind them. They sit down and start discussing life. When 30 minutes pass. Mrs. Bennett has finished explaining the new topic to the students and the students are all working. Except for Mike, who is chewing gum and chilling out.. Suddenly, Alicia begins to feel strange again. She gets up to walk to the desk of Mrs. Bennett to ask her if she could leave, but when she’s almost at her table, she freezes. Everyone in class looks at her, including Mrs. Bennett, who asks if she’s alright. Yet again, she can barely hear it. Suddenly, blood starts to drip from her nose. Mrs. Bennett quickly gets up, but Alicia’s vision slowly turns black as she collapses and falls down on the ground. Most of the students react very shocked, but Mike and Eliza get up to help her together with Mrs. Bennett. But Alicia won’t wake up. Mrs. Bennett reaches for her phone to call Alicia’s parents as the screen fades to black.
Alicia wakes up in a white hospital bed. Her parents are right besides her. When they see that Alicia is awake, they happily react like every parent would. They are very relieved that Alicia is conscious again. Alicia asks where they are. Her dad starts explaining that they are at the hospital after she passed out in class. Her mom then tells her that she’s been here for 28 hours and that the doctors have ran some tests. They’re still waiting for the results. She sighs.
A man walks in. He introduces himself as Doctor John (Michael Caine). He sits down next to the bed, right next to Alicia’s parents. Doctor John has a very nice attitude and comes over as a really trustworthy person. He greets Alicia’s parents by their first names, Maurick and Diane, which makes Alicia wonder if they’d met before. Doctor John start the conversation by saying that he has the test results. He then tells them that they’re not very good. Maurick and Diane ask the Doctor to read the test results.
Doctor John’s voice breaks a little when he begins speaking. He tells them that they’ve run multiple scans and that they’ve diagnosed Alicia with a very rare form of cancer, and that there is a tumor growing in her brain. Diane starts crying and she hugs her husband for support. Maurick has a tear dropping from his eye. Alicia is silent. She says nothing. She is completely shocked by the news. She turns her back to the doctor and lays on her side. Doctor John lays his hand on her shoulder. He tells the family to take in the news. That they might be fit enough to go home at the end of the day. He then leaves. The screen fades to black.
NEXT MORNING
Alicia wakes up. She’s in her own bedroom. She gets up and opens the curtains. It’s raining outside. The day is dark and gritty. Nobody is on the streets. She puts on some clothes and grabs her phone. She sees she has tons of missed calls from Eliza and Mike. She walks downstairs to eat breakfast and sees her parents sitting on the couch with two other people. Doctor John and Mrs. Bennett. Mrs. Bennett gets up and gives Alicia a hug. She tells her that it’s nice to see that she’s up. Doctor John then walks up to her and reintroduces himself as Doctor John Bennett, and tells Alicia that he’s been married to Mrs. Bennett for 25 years. Alicia tries to smile but she’s very sad. John shows her the medication she has to take, but tells her that it’ll make her bald. Alicia nods and takes all the information in. She sits down in between her parents. John gives them more information about the cancer, and that it may cause a stroke at one point in time.
He asks them if they make sure Alicia’s not being too active. Mrs. Bennett, who now introduces herself as Margaret tells Alicia that she’ll look out for her at school. Alicia appreciates that. Suddenly, the doorbell rings. Diane gets up and walks towards the door. She later comes back, joined by Eliza, Mike and Mike’s mother, Isabelle Lewis (Lauren Cohan). Alicia asks them why they’re not in school. Mrs. Bennett tells her that she invited them. Eliza walks up to Alicia and gives her a hug. Mike does the same. They all sit in a circle. They have a conversation about the cancer until Alicia gets dizzy again and goes sleeping.
The film skips 2 months. Alicia wakes up again to a rainy day. She’s bald now. She puts on her clothes, grabs all of her stuff and leaves for school. She is met at school by Eliza and Mike and start gossiping about classmates. Suddenly, Dominic Burns stands before them. He starts laughing at the fact that Alicia is wearing a headscarf. Mike tells him to piss off. Dominic doesn’t take it that well. He kicks Mike in the stomach with his knee and rips off the headscarf. Everybody stares at Alicia’s bald head. Dominic falls silent and tries to apologize, when Alicia starts crying and runs back home.
From then on, Alicia’s situation gets even worse. She barely goes to school anymore. Then, in May, she is moved to the hospital. Her friends sometimes visit her, accompanied by Isabelle. Her parents are with her on a regular base. Alicia becomes a lot more disabled every day. Up until the point she can barely walk, speak and see.
One day, she wakes up and sees someone else sitting next to her bed. It’s Dominic. He tells her how incredibly sorry he feels for her and wishes that he could make every action he’s done in the past undone. He tells her that it is unfair, that she is the one to have cancer. Doctor John and Alicia’s parents walk in. Dominic nods and walks away, after saying goodbye to Alicia. Alicia slowly starts crying. She asks Doctor John to leave and she stays with her parents. They sit next to her and hold her hands. Through all of her tears, Alicia tells her parents that she cannot fight anymore. Maurick starts crying very hard and says: “It’s okay, little girl. You can rest.” After which her mother says: “We’ll be alright. You’ll be alright. We’re here for you.”
Alicia shows a little smile as her eyes close. Her grip on her parents’ hands slowly fades and she slips into the eternal darkness of death.
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