Carson Phillips is a young man who was in High School when he suddenly died, so we are seeing his final weeks in flashback form as he narrates on how unhappy he was in his rather mixed up life.
Being a big fan of Glee (don’t judge me) I thought I would give this film a watch with Chris Colfer taking the lead role and hoping we get to see something different to his Kurt character. At the time of watching the film I did not realize that Chris also wrote the screenplay for the film as well. It wasn’t totally bad and has some good thinking points really for teenagers.
We get to look at how Carson was blackmailing his fellow students so they would contribute to his literary magazine he had set up at school. He only seemed to have one friend Malerie who helped him with the magazine and also the blackmailing. Played by Rebel Wilson, who does seem very typecast in these high school/college films? But she does do it very well.
Carson is doing all of that to try and escape his life and get into his dream college in New York, which is something we are wondering the outcome of. Keeps us guessing. As he must also deal with his drunken mother Sheryl who is extremely selfish and does not get any credit for being a good parent at any point in the film. She had not brought Carson up in a good way at all. We do see scenes where his father Neal is trying to make up for lost time when he was younger.
Overall Carson is a very angry young man and it is very clear to see why with his mother making his life worse rather than trying to help him make it better. Even trying to convince him that he is depressed which doesn’t really seem to be the case, nothing goes his way and he will do anything it takes to get to his dream college. But how will that all end?
It’s a little strange knowing the end of the film as it begins as we know from the first few seconds that Carson dies, and the title of the film tells you exactly how that happens. This film does have some important messages and the performances are pretty decent as well. I enjoyed Dermot Mulroney as his father, he really does add something.
