I got goosebumps watching the trailer for Don’t Make Me Go, a new film from Hannah Marks now available on Amazon Prime. But I’m unable to control my own body. Many trailers give me goosebumps. Actual full length movies very rarely give me that feeling of chills. I used to think that movie theatres would turn the air conditioning way up during the coming attractions to manipulate you into getting goosebumps. I get them at home just sitting on my couch too though.
That nice feeling of unnamed emotion coursing through my body is no guarantee that I actually like something. Occasionally my body betrays me like this. Bland bank commercials can make me cry. This trailer made me cry. The story follows 15-year-old Wally (short for Wallis) played by Mia Isaac. The only other Wallis I know is Wallis Simpson who Edward VIII abdicated the throne for. Wally lives with her single father Max (John Cho) in California. Her mother’s been absent from her life since she was baby. Unknown to her, her father gets diagnosed with cancer. This triggers a father-daughter road trip to New Orleans for his 20-year college reunion in the secret hopes of tracking down Wally’s mom before he dies.
My own mother died of cancer and I haven’t seen my father in 15 years. It makes sense the trailer would make me cry. Your body will betray you.
The film begins with a scene near the end. An emotional Wally and her dad stumble upon a nude beach. Penises and breasts swaying, dangling, flopping. Bodies at rest and bodies in motion. Wally narrates: “You’re not gonna like the way this story ends, but I think you’re gonna like this story.” It made me feel like a teenager. Don’t tell me what to like or not like!
We go back to a time before the life altering cancer diagnosis. Wally and her dad get along pretty well aside from the normal teenage rebellion of lying and going to parties. Wally also learns to deal with the shitty behaviour of Glenn, the boy who begs for nudes but won’t say he’s her boyfriend. Max’s life isn’t lonely. He has a booty call relationship with a French Lit teacher played by Kaya Scodelario. Despite the seeming casualness of their relationship, she’s one of the first people he confides his diagnosis in.
He decides not to tell Wally about the cancer and cajoles her into coming with him on the road trip with the promise that he’ll let her drive sometimes. The driving scenes were some of my favourites in the movie. They get dropped in throughout the film and capture the character’s progression and emotional states in an entertaining way. We also begin to learn of Max’s past dreams of being a singer and their shared love of Iggy Pop.
Mia Isaac and John Cho give touching believable performances as daughter and father. The script falters in their and every other character’s dialogue though. Max’s love interest, his college best friend, everyone speaks in a similar witty manner that made me wonder how I would handle being around people that always talked like that. Probably lots of polite smiles.
I was hooked though. I wanted to know what would happen when Wally finally sees her mother. What they would say to each other. How her mother rationalizes being absent from her life. It’s handled in a believable if anticlimactic way. I did want more from this part and from the character of the mother who’s mostly discarded after this point.
BIG SPOILER AHEAD: Don’t read past here if you haven’t watched the movie. I highly recommend watching the movie without knowing the end. I’m gonna slowly transition to the spoiler zone with some bold italics. Now just italics. If you’re still reading you were fairly warned. Wally reels from her mom not wanting to see her and her dad finally revealing his cancer diagnosis. Daughter and father fight then reconcile. Wally puts Max’s name in for karaoke to sing “The Passenger” by Iggy Pop. He does a good job singing. Wally dances, happy to see her father practising an old passion. Then she drops dead.
She tells us in a voiceover from beyond the grave that she had a congenital heart defect. The script does some work to justify this: Wally’s voiceover reminds us of her heart racing around her crush, getting dizzy during a keg stand, stress sweating, they were all signs that she had a medical condition. See! Her death actually doesn’t come completely out of nowhere.
The choice feels like they couldn’t figure out an ending. Her mom makes a brief cameo at the funeral. Her dad decides to go for the risky cancer surgery. A year later he’s in a serious relationship with his former booty call. They leave for a road trip.
In a midpoint scene, Wally sneaks out of the motel room she’s sharing with her dad to go to a field party with some young Texans she’s just met. They gather to watch a meteor shower. The CGI effect is pretty fake looking. They could’ve just filmed the boring old night sky and it would have been more effective. A more boring ending than her sudden surprise death could have been nice too. But a crazy choice like that is always fun.
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