Get ready to take off on a journey of friendship, love, and self-discovery with Departures. Directed by Peter Hutchings, this film celebrates the joys of life with the story of two unlikely friends: 17-year-old Skye who’s losing her fight to cancer but determined to live the rest of her days fully, and Calvin, a 19-year-old hypochondriac who’s placed himself in bubble, weary to experience life.
Straight from Netflix’s hot new series Sex Education, Asa Butterfield acts alongside Game of Thrones’ star Maisie Williams in this comedy-drama set to release on March 4 in the U.K., but it recently released earlier this month in the U.S. under the title Then Came You.
When angsty Skye (Williams) learns of her terminal illness, she sets out to accomplish her unconventional bucket list she calls her “To Die List.” It isn’t until she meets the aloof Calvin (Butterfield) in a support group does she decide she should share the enjoyment of experiencing life’s tiny moments with him. Along the way, the two’s friendship blossoms as if the universe knew the two needed each other all along.
The main characters in this film contrast beautifully: Calvin’s complete emotional disinterest in life makes him appear as a living corpse, while Skye, the girl who is actually being haunted by the grim reaper, chooses to have life and energy pulse through her instead of focusing on her inevitable ending. Straying from a predictable plot, this male-female relationships showcases friendship in its purest form. No romantic or sexual tension underneath, Skye and Calvin show audiences that “soulmate” and “romantic partner” are not mutually exclusive. As with every friendship, they come close to boiling over, but their dedication to each other goes beyond the “To Die List” that brought them together initially.
Most importantly, however, what this movie brings to audiences is the reminder that it’s not how many years we have in this life, but how we use those years. Skye, although layering her truth of dying with humor most of the time, acknowledges her limited time and is destined to fill them with experiences of all sorts. Although Calvin seemed to have given up on his long, full life, Skye reminds him that he shouldn’t take it for granted because he does, in fact, have more time on this Earth.
Familiar faces also join the cast including Nina Dobrev, Tyler Hoechlin, Ken Jeong, Tituss Burgess and Peyton List.
