Netflix’s new comedy drama, Don’t Say Good Luck, is a heartwarming tearjerker as well as a love letter to the transformative power of being a theater kid. Directed by Julia Hart, Don’t Say Good Luck follows Sophie (Sunny Sandler), a theater kid who finally gets the lead role in her school’s production of Waitress – just as she finds out her mom Elizabeth (Melanie Lynskey) is dying of cancer. While the singing is by no means spectacular and Sandler’s acting is stiff, the film is grounded in the moving performance of Lynskey as a mother who wants nothing more than for her daughter to achieve her dreams, even if she can’t be there to see them.
The film opens on a chaotic morning breakfast scene – Sophie burns her face with a curling iron, her two little brothers are bouncing off the walls, and her parents are just trying to make it out of the house to open their Jewish deli. But as Sophie waits her turn in the school auditorium for her callback, we cut to the hospital, where mom Elizabeth and dad Ted (Max Greenfield) are receiving devastating news: Elizabeth’s cancer has returned. Despite this, Elizabeth vows to fight, and carries on supporting her daughter in her theater dreams when she gets the lead role of Jenna in Waitress. In one hilarious scene, Elizabeth even takes Sophie to the mall to practice her southern accent for the musical, where she claims her daughter is Miss Savannah and needs a bathing suit with ruffles and sparkles.
However, things soon take a turn for the worse. Elizabeth’ s health and ability to function fails, and she begins vomiting spontaneously. At this point, the doctors admit she doesn’t have long to live, the grandparents are called in to help, and the secret of this devastating news is kept from the kids. In the end though, Elizabeth has to break the news to the kids, and she is unable to attend Sophie’s performance. However, Sophie still finds a profound way to keep her mother with her – the main character in Waitress, Jenna, is dealing with a surprise pregnancy. Instead of using the costume the school provided, Sophie closes her performance in her mother’s old maternity dress.
In addition to its poignant moments and meaningful story about love, family and loss, the film is also a classic teen comedy, filled with plenty of awkwardness and cringe. From Sophie’s plotting to practice kissing with her costar and crush to vomiting while drunk into a piano bench, the film is filled with plenty of laugh out loud moments. It’s also filled with the standard cast of teen drama characters – the hot crush, the gay best friend, the forlorn nerd with a crush on the main character, and the inspiring teacher. With its combination of teen comedy tropes and heartbreaking story of loss, Don’t Say Good Luck makes for a predictable but poignant release from Netflix.
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