Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
After she discovers that her boyfriend has betrayed her, Hilary O'Neil is looking for a new start and a new job. She begins to work as a private nurse for a young man suffering from blood cancer. Slowly, they fall in love, but they always know their love cannot last because he is destined to die.
Dying Young is a fairly formulaic terminal-illness romance that follows well-worn genre conventions without much deviation. The plot offers little surprise — doomed love between caregiver and patient is well-trodden territory, and the screenplay leans heavily on melodrama without earning its emotional beats. Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott give earnest, committed performances that elevate the material somewhat, with Scott particularly nuanced as the ailing Victor. Cinematography by David Watkin is competent and occasionally warm, fitting the melancholic tone, but rarely distinctive. The film's novelty is low — it recycles familiar tropes of the weepy romance genre with minimal fresh perspective. The ending, while emotionally intended to be ambiguous and hopeful, lands as unsatisfying and abrupt for many viewers, failing to deliver either catharsis or a compelling resolution.