Mum's List

Mum’s List, or Tear-Jerker Ultima Plus, hits the ground crying. A sad Singe (Spall) waits outside his boy's school, making sure to kiss sons Reef (William Staag) and Finn (Matthew Staag) twice. They want to know why he's kissed them twice. And then some writing is scrawled across the screen: "When I’m gone, kiss the boys two times for me," one of the tasks of the titular list. Blub. This drama, following the ups and downs of a family when wife and mum Kate (Fox) is diagnosed with cancer, is specifically designed to do one thing: make the audience cry. And it might just pull it off.

But there would be no 'might' about it if Mum's List wasn't so intent on overegging everything. Writer-director Niall Johnson (he of 2005 black comedy Keeping Mum), adapting St. John Greene's novel, doesn't know when to quit, piling sad moments on top of sad moments. Splitting the story into three – battling cancer, dealing with the aftermath, and the moments when they met and fell in love when teenagers – it's the flashback to the early days of romance that let the side down.

Probably included for some levity, these sequences feel out of place and despite Ross McCormack and Sophie Simnett (playing the younger versions of Singe and Kate) boasting some decent chemistry there's something forced about them. There's something forced about Kate's to-camera moment too, as she runs through the list: it's a list that we already are aware; like the opening scene above, Johnson superimposes her wishes throughout. But having Fox struggle through it is intended to invoke even more tears. Johnson is constantly nudging with 'Are you crying yet? Hmm? Hmm? Are you?'

If only the director was in tandem with Spall’s performance. As good as Fox is, this is Spall's film. All about the understatement, allowing only an errant tear to trickle on rare occasions, Spall's Singe (short for St. John) is just an ordinary bloke struggling to deal with this extraordinary situation; unable to get his head around what all this will mean for the future, he goes through the motions for the sake of the boys. It's an honest and believable turn – it's as if this was a documentary and he’s all too aware there's a camera on him and so attempts to keep a lid on his emotions. One scene has him attempt a night out: he's at the bar and, out of habit, turns to ask what Kate wants. And he stops mid turn, smile frozen. Blub.