Despite the passion of its leads, Miss You Already is disappointingly formulaic. The establishing whistlestop tour of their friendship is derivative, and the too-good-to-be-true lives are predictably countered as each character is doled out a stock Issue-with-a-capital-I.

The cast don’t manage to elevate the material; Barrymore can’t stop grinning at inappropriate moments, and Cooper’s strutting pretty boy is merely a mellower rehash of his Tamara Drewe character.

Banks’ screenplay makes some attempt at considering how a mastectomy might affect a woman’s self-identity, though this potentially fresh perspective is ultimately sacrificed to the hackneyed plot.

The narrative milestones of Milly’s cancer – including head-shaving and chemo-induced puking – are well worn in cinema, yet it’s the stale and predictable trajectory of this fictional friendship which really offends.

RATING: 2/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Drew Barrymore, Toni Collette, Dominic Cooper, Paddy Considine

DIRECTOR: Catherine Hardwicke

WRITER: Morwenna Banks

SYNOPSIS: The friendship between two life-long friends is put to the test when one starts a family and the other falls ill.