Now Is Good – review

Based on Jenny Downham's novel, which has the more appropriate title Before I Die, this teen cancer drama never really rises above being a collection of cliches, despite some decent performances. Fanning, with a perfect English accent, plays Tessa, a Brighton teenager trying to tick things off her quite reasonable bucket list as time runs out. She's stricken with some sort of movie cancer that makes her the most attractive and interesting person in any room, treatment that has given her a stylish short hair do, and symptoms that include behaviour straight from the Manic Pixie Dream Girl playbook. The direction is flat and obvious, and so fails to elevate things above movie-of-the-week status. Fanning, with her cheeky smirk, carries the film well, but it's Paddy Considine, as usual, who wrests some reality and emotion from trite, if well-intentioned, material.