Written by Isabella Baute Arboleda
Being a teenager comes with enough challenges—managing friendships, romantic interests, school activities and personal ambitions. But what happens when all of that is overshadowed by the biggest challenge of your young life: the possibility of losing one of your parents?
Don’t Say Good Luck, starring Sunny Sandler as Sophie Birenbaum, follows a high school student passionate about theater who earns the lead role in her school’s musical production of Waitress. But her excitement quickly changes when she learns that her mother, Elizabeth’s (Melanie Lynskey) cancer has returned.Â
The film succeeds because it focuses on a universal theme: trying to continue living normally while facing something beyond your control. Sophie still has rehearsals, friendships and teenage problems, but her mother’s cancer changes the way she experiences all of them. This becomes clear when Elizabeth realizes that she will not be able to attend Sophie’s theater performance. Instead, she finds a way to watch one of Sophie’s rehearsal’s remotely, but when things go wrong with the setup, Sophie feels even more exposed and angry. Sophie’s frustration is not simply about her mother’s illness, but also how her illness changes their everyday life.Â
Sandler portrays Sophie as a teenager who can be excited about performing one moment and overwhelmed by her mother’s condition the next. Instead of simply feeling bad about her mother, the film allows her frustration and anger to come through, making her feel like a teenager struggling with emotions she doesn’t know how to handle. Sandler also captures Sophie’s excitement about theater, which makes the contrast between her situation at home and her life on stage more noticeable.
Lynskey delivers one of the film’s most impactful performances as Elizabeth, by showing how much she wants to remain involved in her daughter’s life despite her illness. Her decision to watch Sophie perform is a small but meaningful moment because it shows that she still wants to support her daughter even when she cannot physically be there. Lynskey’s performance becomes especially effective in the quieter moments, when Elizabeth’s illness affects her family activities—like when they want to take their yearly trip to a beach house but can’t due to her illness. Lynskey shows her as a mother who wants to be present for her children while facing something she cannot control
Don’t Say Good Luck’s final moment focuses on the emotional connection between Sophie and her mother, bringing their relationship and the film’s central conflict to the center. Rather than offering a clear resolution, it leaves the audience reflecting on the characters’ experiences and the challenges they have faced throughout. This film is less interested in answering what happens next and more interested in showing how the characters face the present—and it works. It’s about cherishing the present.
