| The Life List is a simple lightweight romantic drama about helping a young woman out of a life rut. Part of my issue with the film is who says Alex (Sofia Carlson)’s life is in a rut? Well, her family, often and repeatedly, they offer this very odd ‘you’re not good enough’ lecture to her everyday. Personally I don’t think it’s for them to decide, but also if you’re going to always tell someone they suck, they are absolutely going to take that to heart and think of themselves as a failure, so really this all her family’s fault. | | 2025
Directed by: Adam Brooks
Screenplay by: Adam Brooks, Lori Nelson Spielman
Starring: Sofia Carlson, Kyle Allen
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After her mother’s death, her will literally becomes a ‘life list’ and Alex must fulfill all of her teenage wishes in order to get her inheritance. Rich people are weird. Yes, this family is ridiculously wealthy, and no, we’re not supposed to hate them for it. Alex is easy to like, mostly because Sofia Carlson absolutely nails the self-deprecating humour in a relatable way and not at all in an annoying or grating way. Alex is smart, but tired (her mother did just die), confident with her humour, but settles easily. She’s the perfect character and choice of lead actress to carry this type of movie.
While I’m not a fan of the premise or the set-up for the premise, I do love the romance angle. The romance is also well enough written and incorporated into the plot that the somewhat long runtime of two hours plus is justified. At the beginning, Alex is dating Finn (Michael Rowland), he’s a man-child who doesn’t seem to be headed very far in life at least in the moment, but he’s sweet and fun. Of course her family hates him, but they hate everything about her life.
While her eventual pairing is obvious and the film does take its time in getting there, it was the right choice for both characters to not get them romantically involved right away. Instead, Alex falls for Garrett (Sebastian de Souza), a very handsome and welcome diversion. The key to not hooking up Sofia with Brad (Kyle Allen) in the beginning, is it allows the film time to develop Brad as a complete character on his own, and to slowly build Alex and Brad’s friendship, that by the end, they are an undeniable couple that the audience is rooting for.
The ‘life list’ itself has some weird points, especially with timing; for instance, one of the items is get a teaching job, and then she just does it, like easily. As if getting a dream job is something you can just tick off your to do list on a Sunday afternoon. There are going to be a whole lot of people in the audience that are very reasonably not going to appreciate that. There are quite a few items on the list that have some weird timing and editing issues going on. It’s easy enough to ignore if you’re into the movie, but if you already don’t like the premise, it is noticeable.
Sofia Carlson and Kyle Allen carry The Life List and transforms the – offputting, at best, and horrible, at worst – premise into a sweet and enjoyable movie.
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