Sunny Dancer
Bella Ramsey turns in another terrific performance in a funny and wrenching tale of the sanctity of life.
Unhappy camper: Bella Ramsey
Image courtesy of True Brit Entertainment.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
We don’t know how lucky we are. Not all of us, of course, but most of us. Ivy Pritchard (Bella Ramsey) is lucky in that her parents adore her, even though she thinks of herself as “different”. Three years ago she was bald but two years later she was given the all-clear, although she has never really recovered psychologically, has shut herself away in her pig stye of a bedroom and, in the words of her mother, has become “emotionally unavailable”. So her parents (Jessica Gunning, James Norton, both excellent) sign her up for a four-week stint at a camp for teenage cancer survivors, so that she can interact with people her own age and with the same psychological issues. Ivy is appalled at the idea and only after some coaxing does she agree to attend ‘Creep Camp’ (her words) or ‘Chemo Camp’ (her words again).
The CRF Camp is actually an impressive facility, nestled in some stunning Scottish countryside in the midst of picturesque lakes and woodland. But the happy-clappy disposition sticks in Ivy’s craw and she immediately rebels against the camp’s president Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and the “inspirational!” quotes dotted around the place, platitudes that she regards as patronising. At an introductory assembly, Ivy makes an instant impression on the other campers, accusing a visiting counsellor of being a “grief tourist” and immediately finding herself in therapy to address her “anger at the world”. We can see where this is all going, but the writer-director George Jacques (whose own mother was diagnosed with breast cancer) is determined not to talk down to his audience. His trump card is Bella Ramsey, whose face extracts the multitude of feelings bubbling up from Ivy’s gut, from disbelief to derision.
Placed in a private cabin with fellow survivor Ella (Ruby Stokes), Ivy is not about to change her tune any time soon. Ella, though, is brimming with positivity and this summer is bent on losing her “V plates,” to shake off her “stabilizers” in the playground of female sexuality. Ivy’s transition from bitter rebel to one of the gang may seem a little abrupt, but Bella Ramsey’s performance and Jaques’ observant, raw dialogue papers over any incredulity. Perhaps inevitably every character – be they inmate or a member of staff – come with their own secrets and hidden agendas, but then don’t we all?
There are moments of high jinks and rapture, but Jaques is not in the business of sugar-coating what it means to be in remission from a disease that doesn’t care who you are. Anger is acceptable – but we still need to make every day count. Ivy dismisses Patrick’s display of photographs in his office as his “paedo wall”, only to discover that the pictures are of those teenagers who weren’t so lucky. The film’s tone and verisimilitude smacks of empirical experience and is a call-to-arms for those oblivious to the horrors that affect so many, particularly the young.
But Sunny Dancer is as much about what it means to be a teenager today as it is about cancer. There are conversations (and jokes), of death and bodily functions, that would make your grandparents blanch, but it brings a bracing realism to the lives of these young people living on borrowed time. A strong soundtrack and a dearth of cliché further strengthens a film that is less about entertaining the viewer than to challenge our preconceptions and to reward us with credible, three-dimensional characters.
Cast: Bella Ramsey, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Ruby Stokes, Jessica Gunning, James Norton, Neil Patrick Harris, Earl Cave, Conrad Khan, Jasmine Elcock, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Louis Gaunt, Josie Walker, James Blunt.
Dir George Jaques, Pro Ken Petrie and George Jaques, Screenplay George Jaques, Ph Oliver Loncraine, Pro Des Pat Campbell, Ed Caitlin Spiller, Music Este Haim and Zachary Dawes, Costumes Liberty Bramall, Sound Matthew Lambourn.
27 Ten Productions/Athenaeum Productions/Night Train Media-True Brit Entertainment.
106 mins. UK. 2026. UK Rel: 14 August 2026. US Rel: 18 September 2026. Cert. 15.
