What I thought of Third Star - With Benedict Cumberbatch

Okay, first of all, this should kind of be in reviews, but the review format doesn't agree with me, and I can't work it out. So here it is instead :)

Third Star is a film staring Benedict Cumberbatch as James, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. For Jame's 29 birthday, he rounds up his three best friends and they leave for Wales to visit his favorite place, a beach in rural wales.

Although this film tackles a very sensitive issue, I felt it handled it brilliantly. The film was very realistic, and something I can certainly see happening in real life. The director made it so that when the actors laughed, you laughed, and when they cried, you cried too. I felt the humour was perfectly timed. It isn't the type of humor you'd find in Hang Over, where the characters get stuck in bizarre situations that are so wild you have to laugh, because how did they manage that? It is down to earth and amazingly portrayed.

I also felt, that the three friends, Miles (JJ Fields), Bill (Adam Robertson) and Davy (Tom Burke) all had a brilliant portray of how people would react to finding out their friend had cancer. I felt that this made each character likeable in their own right, despite each of them having faults.

One negative point about the film, though, was outside of Jame's illness, you don't really get to know the characters. As humans, when we find out somebody has cancer, most people's initial reaction is pity and empathy, which does work in favor for this film, but means outside of the actually pity, doesn't give us anything else to care about the characters. If you have known/know somebody with cancer, I can image it will be slightly different.

I personally felt that the atmosphere of the film, despite the fact it shifted around a lot, really sold the story for me. Yes, you or your friend has cancer, and it's terrible, but you're far more likely to be focusing on creating happy memories with said person while you can, not mopping and crying the entire time. I felt that the darker theme did stay with each character through the entire film, which made the characters random outburst of anger tangible for me.

Third Star is an independent film, and not made to be main stream, so may not be for everybody, but I felt the message in the film came across amazingly. It's a type of film that will make you think and you'll have to consider how far you would go to help your friend.

All in all, I think I would give this film a 7/10.

What do you think? Have you watched the film? Would you consider watching?