The spectre of death hangs heavy over Ol Parker’s film, yet its defining theme is feeling alive.
An adaptation of Jenny Downham’s novel Before I Die, it sees teen terminal cancer sufferer Tessa (Dakota Fanning) trying to burn out rather than fade away - a plan that’s derailed when she falls in love with Adam (Jeremy Irvine).
Even for a subject matter such as this it’s nauseatingly twee.
Yet it stays forgivable thanks to a deftly sweet, sensitive script that is powered by the performances of an emphatic Fanning and Paddy Considine, who plays a distraught father with a sense of paternal warmth and depth.
