The type of film surrounding a character we know we shouldn’t like, Jennifer Cram‘s Sick Girl manages to overcome its central figure’s questionable morals by never asking its audience to forgive her.
The “sick girl” in question is Wren Pepper (Nina Dobrev, great), a slacker, party girl-type who’s never grown up in the same manner as her trio of besties; Laurel (Sherry Cola), Cece (Stephanie Koenig) and Jill (Brisbane-born Hayley Magnus, perhaps walking away with the film with her slick comedic delivery), all of whom have stable relationships, children and/or careers to their name.
Whilst Wren is arguably a good time companion to have around for the nights you want to let loose and forget about your responsibilities, Cram’s script wisely never glorifies this behaviour or talks down to the fact that her friends have all matured and chosen family or their professions over what Wren deems acceptable. Thankfully, Dobrev portrays Wren with enough heart that we can understand her misplaced frustration at how much her friends have moved on from their youth, and it’s the desperation and heartbreak behind her eyes that propels her forward to concoct a “little white lie” about having cancer.
Sick girl is born.
Initially blurting out such a statement on an impulse and basking in the afterglow of her friends immediately rallying around her – she stated her “diagnosis” during a heated argument about their individual stances on their friendship – Wren soon has to live with the fact that people believe she has cancer (of the “tonsil and throat”, she describes), and, not surprising to us as viewers, this isn’t an easy situation to manoeuvre.
As she frantically googles symptoms and what the survival rates are for her “cancer”, Wren’s lie spirals further out of control as her friends truly prove their love for her in a variety of manners (there may or may not be a shaved head pact), her parents (Dan Bakkedahl and Wendi McLendon-Covey) come to smother her in the type of love only a parent exercises best, and a friendship with an actual cancer patient, Leo (Brandon Mycal Smith), blossoms under false pretences.
What proves all the more frustrating is that Wren does comes clean but is ultimately dismissed as her circle believe she’s in denial, and the more they pamper her and shower her with love, the more difficult it is for Wren to summon the nerve (again) to double down and confirm that she is, in fact, healthy and cancer-free; there’s one amusing sequence where she goes to a doctor and practically berates him over the fact that she’s as healthy as she is, despite her dependency on cigarettes and alcohol.
And that so often is Sick Girl‘s strength, that it makes us laugh with, and at, its (should be) offensive absurdity. Cram never glorifies Wren’s behaviour, and it certainly doesn’t ask us to sympathise with her plight. We understand the desperation, but that doesn’t mean we forgive it, and whilst the film falls victim to the trope so many comedies with an emotional core do by momentarily parting with its wit for a more reflective mentality, it thankfully adheres to something of a more realistic temperament by not wrapping everything up in a neat bow.
As is the case with comedies in general, but especially those that want us to follow the journey of someone we ordinarily shouldn’t barrack for, casting is key, and though Dobrev may not be the most likely choice to front a comedy as this she proves quite stellar in the role, owning the character’s flaws, whilst injecting a darkly funny wit that can’t help but be somewhat endearing. It’s also of immense benefit that Cola, Koenig and Magnus hone a believable chemistry between them, making us believe that they’re actually friends – and that the “distance” between them is a natural component to growing up.
Though Sick Girl doesn’t break any new ground specifically, it offers a certain freshness in how it approaches its central dilemma and that a comedic mindset for something so tragic and deplorable isn’t such a bad thing. Cram is aware that comedy is no field to adhere to preciousness, and Sick Girl is an enjoyable bout of bad taste with just enough heart so we can forgive ourselves for enjoying so.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Sick Girl is screening in select theatres and available On Digital and On Demand in the United States from October 20th, 2023. An Australian release is yet to be determined.
