Veronica Decides to Die

Veronica Decides to Die 2009

• Director: Emily Young
• Based on the novel by Paulo Coelho
• Cast: Sarah Michelle Geller, David Thewlis, Melissa Leo, Jonathan Tucker
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sarah Michelle Gellar – Buffy
• David Thewlis – Wonder Woman, Legend, Macbeth, The Theory of Everything, Harry Potter, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Omen, Kingdom of Heaven,  Dinotopia, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?, The Big Lebowski, Naked, Life Is Sweet
• Melissa Leo – Snowden, Prisoners, London Has Fallen, Oblivion, Welcome to the Rileys, Frozen River, Homicide Life on the Street, The Ballad of Little Jo
• Why? Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Thewlis
• Seen: 9 January 2023      

       Veronica (Gellar) decides she would rather die than live a life in a bleak meaningless insane world and downs vast amounts of booze and pills. Someone discovers her in time and she ends up in an expensive private care home Villette. Dr Blake (Thewlis) informs her that the overdose has caused heart damage and an aneurism in her brain and she has at most months to live.

       After this decent start the film loses steam. Gellar gives a good performance, Thewlis and Leo are always good, but the film isn’t very interesting and the twist is just too feel-good to be endured.

       I haven’t read the book so I can’t compare. I’ve only read The Alchemist by Coelho and found it highly over-rated so I’m not tempted to read this.

       One little highlight was a few seconds of the Swedish song ‘Vem vet nte du vem vet inte jag’ by Lisa Ekdahl which was hugely popular in the 80’s (if I remember correctly). That doesn’t help the film though. 

2* of 5