What has happened to the American film comedy? Has COVID killed it? I would say that the current entry “Sick Girl,” a comedy wannabe about a young woman so desperate for her friends’ company and attention that she pretends to have cancer, is like a TV sitcom on a big screen. But “Sick Girl” is not good enough to be a TV sitcom. Written and directed by former casting director Jennifer Cram, making her feature debut, and executive produced by its talented lead Nina Dobrev (TV’s “Fam”), “Sick Girl” is a clever title for this tale.
But the goodness ends there. Cue the “Friends”-sounding opening theme music. Dobrev plays Wren Pepper, a low-achieving, thirty-ish singleton who works in a gift shop in an unidentified city and yearns for more time with her beloved friends from high school (there is no mention of college). The tall, self-centered blonde Jill (Hayley Magnus, TV’s “The Mapleworth Murders”), who is also a mother, has become some sort of girl boss. Redhead Cece (Stephanie Koenig, TV’s “The Flight Attendant”) has a new baby and is totally stressed out about it, and marathon runner Laurel (Sherry Cola, “Joy Ride”) has her training to keep her busy. In an opening scene, Cece claims to have learned how to sleep with her eyes open (I did that watching this).
Wren manages to get drunk in the morning and try to leave without paying at a local bar. She ends up in jail. When her behavior further shocks her friends, Wren blurts out the lie that she has cancer.
When asked to specify, she says that she, a heavy smoker and drinker has a “little tonsil cancer.” Yes, there will be a lot of puking, but very little in the way of mirth or humor. At The Inviting Place, the modest gift and card shop, where Wren works, the customers are few and far between. Her oddly tolerant boss Malcolm (Ray McKinnon, TV’s “Rectify”) is, like almost everyone, sympathetic when he hears Wren’s news. We hear the words “Uber,” “Postmates” and “Tinder” in quick succession as if to check them off a list of magical utterances that must be pronounced in any new movie.
Wren goes to a cancer support group, where she meets Leo (Brandon Mychal Smith), a kind and handsome young man with liver cancer, who feels like it’s OK to use harsh language in front of other people’s kids in the pet store where he works. I didn’t know if it was a character flaw, or if writer-director Cram forgot there were kids in those scenes. “Fight Club” and “A Walk to Remember,” two films that could not be more different, are referenced.
Wren talks about having sessions with her friends during which they would fire “love missiles” at her to help her heal. Wren and her friends go out drinking at a club, where the other young women are slightly younger than they. Wren, Cece, Jill and Laurel get drunk, pole dance (of course), get into hair-pulling fights and land in jail (this is Wren’s second time). An alarm clock montage accompanies Wren’s quest to “atone.” We know Wren has reached her redemption when she finally cleans her filthy bedroom (and tries to eat a sandwich that has been in her trash). I’m sure it’s possible to make a comedy about having cancer. “50/50” was not bad. “Sick Girl,” which manages to waste the talent of Wendy McLendon-Covey as Wren’s mother, is. Bad.
(“Sick Girl” contains profanity, sexual references and drug use)
“Sick Girl”
Rated R. On Digital and VOD.. Grade: C
