A VERY good idea, but (ironically) not executed in an interesting way.

Rating: 3/10 (5 February 2019)

It's ironic a movie written by someone who has spent time with cancer patients wouldn't have the movie resonate more completely. But for me, this one didn't. The movie is just kind of there, resting on the laurels that because its main characters have cancer we should automatically forgive for not being be as informative of the subject matter or entertaining as it could've been. I've known people who have died or suffered from horrible aflictions and a lot of little things about this movie felt false. And I felt bad because I like John and everytrhing he contributed to Crash Course series, and wanted to like this.
If you remove the cancer component, it doesn't feel that interesting or real to me. I have a hard time believing that an author would be so horrible to these kids without more explanation and that someone as nice as his assistant would continue to work for him. Although I'm surprised she doesn't forgive him as his apology seemed extremely sincere.
The crash course series in much more entertaining than this was. Movies like this I was hoping would have shown a greater responsibility to the people suffering from cancer and their families how better to cope, that may not know how. This is why I love the movie 6 weeks with Dudley Moore and Mary Tyler Moore.
In this film, the adults felt the most real, entertaining and informative of how people might be dealing with a disease - her mom, dad, the author. Although it was nice to see the author of the book in the movie. For me this was the most interesting part.
Nothing trivializes a movie's few good moments like a half-hazardly chosen songs as accompaniment to prop feelings. This is what the actors were actually for IMO.