The new Sofia Carson movie on Netflix, The Life List, has a lot going for it. It has a likable-but-messy protagonist, played by the always-charming Carson. It has a heartfelt undercurrent of grief driving the story. And it has an adorable leading man (Kyle Allen) who looks an awful lot like Glen Powell before he beefed up for Top Gun. But then The Life List had to go and ruin it all with a cheating storyline.
Warning: Major The Life List spoilers ahead.
Written and directed by Adam Brooks (also known for the 2008 rom-com Definitely, Maybe), who adapted the 2013 best-selling novel of the same name by Lori Nelson Spielman, The Life List stars Carson as Alex, a woman struggling to find herself. After her mother (played by Emmy-nominated actor Connie Britton) dies a slow death of cancer, Alex is surprised to learn that she will not be receiving the same inheritance as her siblings. At least, not until she completes her “life list,” aka a list of goals she wrote for herself when she was 13 years old. It’s her mother’s way of helping her daughter get out of a rut, even from beyond the grave. But it means that Alex must work with her mother’s lawyer, Brad (Allen), to prove she has completed each item on the list. Every time she checks something off, she gets a new DVD from her mother. The last item on the life list? “Find true love.”
Anyone familiar with the tropes of romantic comedies will instantly clock Brad as Alex’s end-game “true love” relationship. Unfortunately, Brad has a girlfriend. A beautiful, loving girlfriend named Nina (played by Maria Jung). It’s not clear how long they’ve been dating, but she’s important enough for Brad to keep a framed photo of Nina on his desk at work.
As soon as Alex sees Nina’s photo, she starts doing that thing where she goes overboard to compliment Nina’s appearance—as if she’s trying to aggressively demonstrate to Brad that she’s a down-to-earth guy’s girl, and totally not a threat to his relationship.
“She has amazing cheekbones and what appears to be a perfect body,” Alex says, examining the photo.
Anyone with eyes knows what’s coming, but I foolishly assumed The Life List would—in the grand tradition of taken men in romantic comedies—find a way to break up Brad and Nina before Alex made her official move. But, uh, that’s not really what happened.
Instead, Alex gets dumped by her boyfriend (Sebastian de Souza), and needs a ride to Vermont to pay a visit to her estranged father (long story). Brad swoops in to be her knight in shining armor… with Nina at his side. And let me tell you, Nina is a freaking champ.
She pushes through the romantic tension between Alex and Brad, and still manages to have a good time. She’s warm and friendly toward Alex. She doesn’t make a single snide comment. She gamely sings along to “That’s Not My Name” by the Ting Tings, after Alex insists on controlling the music. (Everyone knows that privilege goes to the person in the passenger seat!) She doesn’t even call Alex out when she, once again, overcompensates for her crush on Nina’s boyfriend by gushing over her beauty (bordering on hitting on her). Alex even goes so far as to ask Brad an obviously flirty question about their sex life. Girl! You know Nina can hear you, right?
Honestly, I wish Nina had gotten at least one mean comment in before she disappears from the movie completely. She deserved as much. Unfortunately, the last time we see her, she’s watching Brad and Alex, once again, flirt in front of her in the hotel lobby. After that, according to Brad, she gets a work call and takes a flight home. Which leaves Alex and Brad free to engage in a drunken hook-up via their combined rooms. And they do!
Alex doesn’t seem to have any real qualms about hooking up with a man whose girlfriend she thinks is so, so, so pretty.
“This is crazy,” she tells Brad, after their first passionate kiss.
“Should we stop?” Brad asks.
“No!” Alex replies, immediate. And that’s that.
The next morning, there doesn’t seem to be any guilt on Alex’s end. To be fair, she’s preoccupied with her daddy issues, but still. It’s not until after a four-hour drive back to New York City that she even seems to remember that, oh yeah, she might have just ruined Brad’s relationship.
“Last night was wonderful, but it was a mistake,” Alex says. “You have this amazing girlfriend-“
At this point, Brad interrupts to inform Alex that, actually, Nina dumped him, and that’s why she left Vermont early. So, no, technically, Brad did not cheat on Nina. But it doesn’t matter. Because Alex thought she was the other woman when she hooked up with Brad. She was, apparently, more or less fine with that. That’s cheating behavior, even if it wasn’t, technically speaking, cheating.
In a bizarre turn of events, it’s only when Alex realizes that she wasn’t helping Brad cheat on his beautiful girlfriend that she gets mad. That’s a read flag if I’ve ever seen one. After that, it was impossible for me to root for Alex and Brad as a couple. All I could think about was poor Nina. It’s too bad, because The Life List is an otherwise cute and charming movie. But Nina deserved so much better.