Review: Ways to Live Forever (2010)

Cast: Robbie Kay, Alex Etel, Ella Purnell
Director: Gustavo Ron
Country: Spain | UK
Genre: Drama | Family
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Note: Ways to Live Forever is now open in limited release

You needn’t have read Sally Nicholls’ novel to know that Ways to Live Forever, the sophomore feature effort of Spanish director Gustavo Ron, is an adaptation. The glaringly expository voiceover reveals that immediately, its giveaway stature as the awkward last bastion of the frustrated screenwriter—at least as it’s used here—the first clue that all is not well in the cinematic translation of this text. The difficulties are unsurprising given the epistolary structure of the book; pitched as the diary of twelve-year old Sam, a leukaemia patient, its stream-of-consciousness style is intensely and intently literary, the kind of thing calling on considerable grace to be woven into a film narrative.

Ron’s script struggles to distance itself from its literary forebear: he relies on narration like a toddler on training wheels, as though terrified even the slightest derivation from course might send him and his film toppling to the ground.

Such grace, alas, is in short supply here, and Ways to Live Forever’s inclusion of a video diary comes off as little more than a desperate attempt to force the shape of one art form on another. Ron’s script struggles to distance itself from its literary forebear: he relies on narration like a toddler on training wheels, as though terrified even the slightest derivation from course might send him and his film toppling to the ground. Much like the discerning viewer, however, Ron does have some appreciation for the peculiarities of cinematic storytelling, and his adaptation is not without its particularly filmic flourishes, most prominently recurring cutaways to an inventive animated world. Rendered in CGI, but reminiscent of stop-motion, these interludes are the movie’s finest moments, brief respites from erstwhile dependency.

There’s a curious tendency that’s arisen in narratives trained on terminally-ill youth—a subgenre of sorts to the likes of The Bucket List—that sees the loss of virginity as their ultimate dying goal. It’s weirdly, even uncomfortably prevalent, sex always standing atop the to-do list in movies like Death of a Superhero and Now Is Good. What’s refreshing about Ways to Live Forever—albeit more a consequence of target market than a conscious disavowal—is its asexuality. Sam’s goals in life never drop below his belt, his eyes more focused on breaking world records and watching R-rated horror movies—his selection here is poor—than on getting his rocks off. It’s a more relatable portrait of a child on the brink of death, less indebted to sex comedy than it is to the appreciable way in which a real human might deal with this crisis.

So much of this effect is down to the infectious performance of Robbie Kay, who fills Sam with the very life those around him fear is slipping away. His energy is integral to the film’s spirit, which engages with the realities of death without ever allowing itself to be crushed by the unfairness of it.

That’s not to say it’s a particularly sombre movie in any way; rather, it’s a blissfully light-hearted affair, finding joy in every moment of life even as the amount of moments to come grows smaller and smaller. So much of this effect is down to the infectious performance of Robbie Kay, who fills Sam with the very life those around him fear is slipping away. His energy is integral to the film’s spirit, which engages with the realities of death without ever allowing itself to be crushed by the unfairness of it. It’s this kind of welcome, comforting confrontation with a difficult subject matter that the movie strives to reach, and Ron deserves plaudits for getting there despite the drawbacks of his botched adaptation.

Yet even for the difficult engagements Ways to Live Forever manages, it just doesn’t manage enough, just fails to maintain a connection to the heart of its subject matter. Crucial issues are repeatedly signposted but never really explored: the vaguely frightened disengagement of Sam’s dad, for instance, and its gestures toward the stoicism of father-son relationships. This, though the most egregious, is just one such example of ideas repeatedly acknowledged and never used, as though Ron can’t decide what to tackle so tackles it all in diminutive quantities. His efforts are welcome, if without any great success; his film hits some important topics, just never hard enough.

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Ronan Doyle

Director of Movies On Demand & Sr. Staff Film Critic at Next Projection

Having spent the vast majority of my life sharing in the all too prevalent belief than cinema is merely dumbed-down weekend escapism for the masses, I was lucky enough to turn on a television at the exact right moment to have my perspectives on the medium completely transformed. Those first two and a half hours marked the beginning of a new life revolving around—maybe even depending upon—the screen and the depth of artistry, intellectual stimulation, and emotional exhilaration it can provide.

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