Life in a Year (2020)

Life in a Year takes a familiar tearjerker premise and gives it a surprisingly youthful spark, less about “the tragedy” than about the audacity of choosing joy while the clock is ticking. Mitja Okorn keeps the tone tender and romantic without turning syrupy, letting the movie live in small, intimate moments—late-night conversations, impulsive adventures, and the kind of love that makes you rethink what you’re doing with your time. Jaden Smith brings an earnest, open-hearted vulnerability, Cara Delevingne has an offbeat luminance that makes their chemistry feel lived-in, and Cuba Gooding Jr. adds real weight to the father-son pressure simmering underneath. It’s not for viewers allergic to emotional melodrama, but if you’re in the mood for a cathartic, date-night drama that wants you to cry and then walk out appreciating your life a little more, it delivers.

Life in a Year is aiming for a big, tender tearjerker about a teen trying to cram a lifetime of love and meaning into one final year, and you can feel the movie reaching hard for your emotions. The problem is it often feels like it’s pushing buttons rather than earning the heartbreak, with a glossy, “designed-to-cry” script that can come off mawkish and a bit artificial. If you’re sensitive to cancer-romance stories that lean heavily on montage-y wish fulfillment, dramatic speeches, and emotional engineering, this may feel more manipulative than moving. That said, the cast is likable and the central idea has a sweet sincerity, so if you want a straightforward, sentimental romance and don’t mind the movie laying it on thick, it can still work as a one-night cry.