Then Came You is a 2018 dramedy about a spunky teen, terminally ill with brain cancer who recruits a friendless hypochondriac to help her complete her bucket list.
When socially awkward hypochondriac Calvin (Asa Butterfield) joins a cancer support group at his exasperated doctor’s insistence he doesn’t expect to get pulled into carrying out a rambunctious cancer-stricken teen’s bucket list. After all, Calvin’s entire being hinges on his obsessive-compulsive belief that he has a terminal illness. Not the other way around.
With his symptom journal and thermometer in tow at all times (even at a high school kegger) he spends his days mindlessly loading luggage onto planes at an airport with his dad (David Koechner) and older brother, Frank (Tyler Hoechlin). Other than mooning over young stewardess Izzy (Nina Dobrev) from afar, or whittling wood creations in his garage turned workshop, he mopes around in a rut, living day to day in a life that’s split between the underwhelming monotony of his baggage handling day job, and the all consuming anxiety he feels about dying. Then, he meets Skye.
In the final stage of cancer, Skye (Maisie Williams) the troublemaker of the support group romps into Calvin’s life with a sugar rush of Manic Pixie Dream Girl energy. Brash, plucky and exuberant Skye both drags the uptight and reluctant Calvin into helping her fulfill her “To Die” list and makes helping him, a textbook hopeless case, get a date with Izzy her personal project, brain tumor be damned.
As Skye crams years of experiences into the remaining months she has left we root for her. Whether she’s hooked up to a lie detector just for kicks or showing up at the airport Calvin works at bearing a gift: a goldfish swimming in a bag attached to an IV drip, she’s a lovable riot. It’s all due to Maisie Williams who is wonderfully cast in the role. Manic Pixie Dream Girl as she is at first, Williams keeps Skye from being an infuriating ditz. Yes, her quirkiness with a capital Q and her sunshine and sparkles sensibilities are reinforced by her playful hijinks and her fashion choices (hello, cat-eared beanies, knee-high Converse, and electric blue wigs) but Williams brings sensitivity, thoughtfulness, and vulnerability to the character.
Then Came You’s second lead, Asa Butterfield, already an accomplished drama actor is also fitting as Calvin. Attuned to his character’s raw pain, he skillfully brings the character to life not just with his interactions with Skye but with his body language and silence performances, and how they transform into something freer, lighter, and brighter as the film progresses. Butterfield especially has a talent for using his eyes. His expressive baby blue eyes convey the uncertainty and undercurrent of sadness he quietly holds inside himself, and the help he needs but cannot voice, more effectively than any line of spoken dialogue can.
Butterfield, Williams, director Peter Hutching, and Then Came You writer Fergal Rock bring a down to earth sensibility to the lead characters that keep them from being too much of an extreme. It’d be far easier to write Calvin and Skye as the tropes they’re inspired by, but instead, the filmmakers (and actors) build off of the archetypes without relying on them. Take Skye, although she’s spunky and often unpredictable she has layers that make her grounded and relatable. In one instance, she shares her realistic, and even cautionary perspective towards Izzy’s sudden interest in Calvin, “What if Izzy only likes you for your cancer? Some people really get off on that shit.” Preach, sister!
As a general rule, popular “Sick Teen” films (STFs) are often romanticized with paint-by-numbers plots. Think, The Fault in Our Stars, Midnight Sun and Five Feet Apart. Refreshingly, Then Came You largely swerves away from the gimmicky STF dramedy narrative. It has its moments where it does skip along the path of tried-and-true STF storytelling. There’s a syrupy sweet but entertaining montage of Calvin and Skye knocking off the items on the bucket list (Driving in a firetruck. Selling fast food in a chicken and hot dog suit! Graffiting an alley wall.) and there are some plasticky “pearls of wisdom” about living life fearlessly. Wrapped up with a weepy flashback when Skye does bite the dust Then Came You does for the most part ace the STF curriculum. But it’s not beholden to it.
Then Came You rises above the predictable, banal STFs by redefining how it expresses love. Not unlike the off-beat dark comedy Me, Earl, and The Dying Girl, the only thing that “blossoms” between Skye and Calvin is friendship. Sure, Calvin is fascinated by Skye’s irrepressible spirit and admires her confidence, but his heart is set on Izzy. Then Came You reframes their love as non-romantic and asserts that you can deeply, fully, and purely love someone without being in love with them.
Along with its rounded performances from Williams and Butterfield, a roster of entertaining side characters (comedian Ken Jeong’s police officer, Al, and his partner Officer Mya are total scene stealers) and energetic pacing, the power of Then Came You is in its simplicity. This indie dramedy doesn’t ask viewers to do a whole lot, other than to watch and listen. To sit back, take it all in, and be there with the characters. Unfettered by any complicated storylines or an overly serious demeanor Then Came You is an emotion-stoking and heartwarming experience that won’t be forgotten quickly.