Dear Zoe

Gren Wells’ teenage drama is made truly memorable by its outstanding lead player, Sadie Sink.

Sadie Sink

We live in a changing world. Not so long ago any aspiring actress whose name was Sadie Sink would have been reminded that it was Judy Garland who won the hearts of the public, not Frances Gumm. But Sadie Sink is a child of the 21st century born on 16th April 2002 and for her no change of name was necessary. Having started acting in her infancy (she played the title role in a Broadway production of the musical Annie at the age of 11), she has already achieved fame as Max Mayfield in Netflix’s Stranger Things and, having not previously witnessed her work myself, I do not hesitate to proclaim that her performance in Dear Zoe immediately makes her a cinema star (a view clearly shared by Darren Aronofsky since she stars in his new film The Whale).

Dear Zoe is an adaptation of a young adult novel by Philip Beard and is the second feature film to have been made by Gren Wells who brings a lively approach to the material. The opening scenes capitalise on the energy that Sadie Sink possesses on screen and the whole film gains immensely from her presence. At the outset we hear Sadie's voice in the character of Tess DeNunzio, a teenager living in Pittsburgh: she is sharing with us the letter she would like to be able to write to her younger sister, Zoe, who died in an accident on the day of the 9/11 attack. We may only learn the full details of what happened later on, but it is evident from the start that Tess feels responsible and that she is having to cope with this burden of guilt at the age of sixteen (Sink may be twenty now but she has no difficulty whatever in playing convincingly a girl four years younger).

As adapted by Mark Lhormer and Melissa Martin, Dear Zoe is certainly an engaging work and not only for the young adults who may be its prime audience. However, it is not always as well handled as it might have been. For one thing it tends to sidestep too often the central concern, that being the way in which Tess blames herself too harshly and needs to overcome that. A brief clip is seen featuring the Fred Rogers television show and that is a reminder that he was a children's entertainer who treated comparably serious subjects head-on. Literature for young adults is often noted for tackling somewhat dark themes so one might have expected that Wells’ film would follow this example. But, in fact, much of it is concerned with a potential romance that occurs when Tess, whose parents are divorced, runs off to spend time with her dad, Nick (Theo Rossi), rather than with her mother, Elly (Jessica Capshaw), and her stepfather (Justin Bartha). It is then that Tess encounters dad's neighbour Jimmy Freeze (Kweku Collins) who loves loud music and has Rastafarian locks. Jimmy is immediately declared by her father to be someone whom she should avoid. She is clearly attracted but sensibly cautious too and, as the film proceeds, we discover just where this relationship is leading her while also being invited to assess if her preference for her father over her mother is as justified as it first appears.

By concentrating much of the time on these issues rather than on the lasting impact of Zoe's death, the film becomes a more conventional teenage tale than might have been expected and it also encourages Gren Wells to adopt a less realistic tone by incorporating soundtrack songs, some of which reflect directly on the narrative. There are other weaknesses in the writing too: the mother's role really needed to be fleshed out much more and towards the end the narrative seems too rushed (as when Elly ends up in hospital but is then seen in no time at all up and about visiting Tess unexpectedly). Both Theo Rossi and Kweku Collins have the time to make useful contributions that are quite good enough to render Dear Zoe highly watchable even if not memorable. But the one player able to convert it into a special experience is Sadie Sink who totally transcends the film’s limitations. What she offers is not only the blaze of star quality but something else that does not always go hand-in-hand with that, namely the sense that her acting ability is special too.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Sadie Sink, Theo Rossi, Jessica Capshaw, Justin Bartha, Kweku Collins, Vivien Lyra Blair, McKenzie Noel Rusiewicz, Tanyell Waivers, Sophie Guest, Emmy Janes, Jonathan Visser, Evan Coury, Jean Zarzour.

Dir Gren Wells, Pro Brenda Lhormer, Marc Lhormer, Peter Phok and Christopher H. Warner, Screenplay Marc Lhormer and Melissa Martin, from the novel by Philip Beard, Ph Joel Schwartz, Pro Des Carmen Navis, Ed Julian Smirke, Music Michael Yezerski, Costumes Mindy Eshelman.

Zin Haze Productions/Resonate Entertainment-Reel 2 Reel Films.
94 mins. USA. 2022. US limited release and UK release on digital platforms: 4 November 2022. Cert. 15.