SICK GIRL - Mark Reviews Movies

Sick Girl, Lionsgate

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 19, 2023

There are fibs and lies, and then there's what the protagonist of Sick Girl tells her friends in a fit of egotism and insecurity. This is the story of a 30-or-so-year-old woman who doesn't feel fulfilled with her life, wants things to return to the fun ways of her younger days, and feels as if her best friends are slipping away because of the responsibilities of adulthood, which she has mostly avoided. What does she do to get their attention? Well, she announces that she has cancer. She actually doesn't, of course.

Yes, this is an awful thing to do, and it quickly makes Wren (Nina Dobrev) about as unsympathetic as a character can be without, you know, actually committing some sort of physical injury or crime. Writer/director Jennifer Cram clearly knows this and plays into that fact with this story. Since it's a comedy, that mostly means laughing at Wren for how her terrible lie causes a lot of personal problems that she otherwise could have avoided by, well, not lying about having cancer.

It almost works for a while, too, because the story focuses on how much Wren's deception and life spiral out of control as a result. If the movie ultimately doesn't work, it's mostly because Cram wants us to find some way of understanding and sympathizing with Wren. No matter how many lessons she learns along the way and despite the best efforts of Dobrev to reveal the vulnerability of this character, that effort is mostly a losing battle.

Ironically, the failure is in part to the movie's comedic nature. The approach puts a level of distance between us and the character, which certainly makes it easier to find the humor in the various ways everything collapses around her, but when it comes to finally trying to care about the emotions leading to and resulting from her lie, the separation makes that tough.

All Wren wants is to spend more time with her friends from high school, who have started jobs and/or families and/or more important projects than just getting drunk at bars and clubs whenever there's downtime. That's what Wren's life has become: a shift at a local greeting card store, a night out of heavy drinking, and waking up to start the whole cycle over again. Apparently, she often finds herself awakening on the couch of the home of friend Cece (Stephanie Koenig), who's starting to become frustrated with having to explain Wren's behavior to her young daughter.

Her other friend Jill (Hayley Magnus) is also married with a kid, while having a busy career, too, and Laurel (Sherry Cola), the fourth member of the friend group, is training to run a marathon. Anyway, Wren sees all of this, wants more attention, and, at a birthday party for her and after getting the idea from a soap opera, blurts out that she has cancer. She immediately regrets the spur-of-the-moment proclamation, but her friends, being the good people they are, already are there for her no matter what.

All of this is incredibly uncomfortable, and in terms of the comedy, that's the point. Wren has to keep up the lie, if only because she knows telling the truth would make her friends—and, as the situation escalates, many more people—rightfully hate her and because the pals believe Wren's in denial when she tries to. This means sitting by and being able to do nothing as the friends put in a lot of effort, a lot of emotional support, and set up various ways to help Wren physically and psychologically.

For the most part, they're not the target of the jokes (Later, when the gags start to run dry, that dynamic changes a bit, especially when it comes to some hair clippers). The aim is squarely on Wren, who's racked with guilt, shame, discomfort, and dread—and rightfully so. For her part, Dobrev ensures the character is tormented by these feelings and self-aware enough that we know there's no malice on Wren's part, and as the movie starts moving toward trying to understand—not justify or excuse—her behavior, the performance is almost thoughtful enough to get us thinking about having some sympathy for her. Cram comes close, perhaps, in the portrayal of Wren's parents (played by Wendi McLendon-Covey and Dan Bakkedahl), who are so self-centered that it's little wonder Wren turned out the way she has, but they're mostly here for jokes, too.

Some balance is provided by Leo (Brandon Mychal Smith), who actually does have cancer, whom Wren meets a support group, and who becomes her friend. There are a couple of issues with this character and his dynamic with Wren. First, Leo is here as a means for our protagonist to learn some things that, hopefully, most people wouldn't need to be taught, and second, a major decision he makes here is too convenient as a way to open the possibility of sympathizing with Wren. If he can do it, why shouldn't we?

The answer's right there in the premise of Sick Girl, which is funnier when it's as harsh about its main character as she deserves. The attempts to soften all of this come up flat and disingenuous.

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