"Don't Make Me Go" Review: A Depressing and Controversial Ending

**WARNING: MOVIE RUINING SPOILERS AHEAD**

Brought to the screen by young director Hannah Marks and Amazon Studios is the endearing father/daughter relationship of Max (John Cho) and Wally (Mia Isaac) as they embark on a road trip from New Mexico to Florida. Packed along with their clothes and toothbrushes are the secrets that Max is harboring about the motivations behind this journey to his 20thcollege reunion. Having recently learned of a brain tumor and being given one year to live, Max realizes that Wally will be left with no family to care for her and conjures the idea of introducing Wally to her mother that left when she was a baby. Wally is reluctant to go as her focus remains on her unofficial relationship and other typical teenage highlights. As they fall deeper into the unorthodox journey, Wally learns a bit more about the person she calls her father as Max is eager to cram decades of parental wisdom into the time he has left. Driving lessons, late night adventures, and a few rounds of roulette could not shield Wally from the pain of the truth about this impromptu road trip. The culmination of their laughs and tears spirals into a shocking third act that, as Wally's opening voice over promises, we will not like.

Ultimately, the experience you have of this film will largely ride on how much you accept the third act twist. It is not only a surprise, but it alters the way you think about the overall narrative and sheds more light on why certain plot threads were included. There is no middle ground with the fact that Wally unexpectedly dies of a heart condition: it either comes with a side of sadness or eye rolls. I found it to be the former, not only because the narrative distracts you from the hints that she has something wrong with her, but because it still fits the direction of the film fairly well. There were watery eyes for sure, and I was angry at the story, but not the story's direction, for warming me up so much to these characters to just leave me reeling.

The silver lining across any plot or pacing issues is the on-screen chemistry between John Cho and Mia Isaac. They pull you right into their qualms and their quirks, finding it easy to hang on every interaction with much interest. More importantly, though, is the emotional presence they each burden, especially the veteran Cho, who can convey so much through his facial reactions alone. It was easy to care about these characters and their journey, even if the journey itself felt a bit paint by numbers. Where there was humor, I laughed. When there was stress, I felt tension. The story did a fantastic job of putting you right in the characters' pockets, wanting so bad for things to work out, while maintaining the dread of possibilities. Amidst the uninspiring story direction, there is some clever dialogue and writing in how the movie ties together many of its themes. The exploration of childhood and adulthood, specifically, becomes tied to Max and Wally's personalities and the ways in which they develop throughout the movie. There are then lines both within the film and in the voice over that further exemplify that exploration and did not come off as cheesy as they could have (e.g., Wally's closing lines about her selfishness).

It is easy to ignore the story's flaws and not even recognize them altogether as Max and Wally play roulette or fall onto opposite ends of the spectrum with their relationships. The road trip is too purposely leading to a tragedy, leaving many of the random adventures and destinations feeling empty. When our leads are trapped in a car together, it leads to good character development and building emotional weight. But everything else was there to create a smokescreen to the twist ending, with it all being geared for Wally's emotional climax and future without her father. The biggest dud of these adventures was the underlying journey for Wally to meet her mother, who left them for Max's best friend early in Wally's life and has not been seen since. Tracking her down and the resolution, or lack there of, of her decision was very unsatisfying. It becomes ever more frustratingly inconsequential considering that Wally dies, leaving the mother as just a misused MacGuffin that had no impact on the character's endpoints. The plot is too purposeful in its machinations to feel more inspired than the straight line it draws. There could also be an argument aht much of Cho's dialogue is a bit too on the nose and obviously is someone not planning on staying around for long. But there were also some highlights in how the story avoided some of the obvious tropes of similar stories, such as Wally not conveniently finding out about Max's prognosis from an e-mail or text.

As noted earlier, it is the flexibility of the storytelling that was most impressive. Even with the unexpected conclusion, the narrative still fits as it traced Wally's last moments and the lessons she learned surrounding the movie's themes of relationships, connections, and adulthood. In what was framed as being a teenager heeding the advice of her dying father, giving him hope for her future, was actually Wally's final character resolutions. The final form of her young life would include learning to value herself and the company she keeps, as well as the value of her father and the person he is behind the label. Her rebellious moments felt out of place for most of the movie, as they kept her separated from her dad and the emotional core of the narrative. These wasted opportunities for more of the fulfilling Max/Wally dynamics now become reshaped into the few moments to be herself and lean into the independence of adulthood. It really is a touching (and depressing) tale at its core, even if it is reliant on an ending that could understandably be labeled as a cheap ploy.

There are a lot of emotions to be had here and I happened to trip into most of them. This movie benefits from its little moments and the emotional weight carried well by its well-matched cast. A polarizing ending will leave audiences with strong emotions in one way or another that will be best appreciated with less plot focus and more on character moments. I enjoyed the experience of this movie in all of its sadness and shattered dreams of a happy ending by leaning into the main cast and their chemistry. Sure, there are plenty of holes to pick into the plot and story choices, but most of that will come long after the film leaves you devastated. A movie about human connection should be valued for the connections it shares between its characters and the audience and, for that, “Don't Make Me Go” is a success.

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RATING: 🚙 🚙 🚙 🚙 / 5

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