'The Life List' offers heartfelt, cheesy drama

I don’t think I’ve ever been more confused with how to feel about a movie. Yet here I am, both cringing from second-hand embarrassment and motivated to achieve my dreams.

“The Life List” came out on Netflix on March 28, 2025, and it is based on the book of the same name by Lori Nelson Spielman.

The movie starts off with Alex Rose (Sofia Carson) and her comfortable, risk-free life. She has just been fired from her teaching job, hired at her mom’s cosmetic company and is moving in with her seemingly unambitious boyfriend. Despite all this, she’s convinced herself that she is happy, even if her mother (Connie Britton) does not think so.

It is revealed that Alex’s mother has cancer and she passes away early on in the film. Alex and her brothers are being read the will when it is revealed that Alex will not be receiving her inheritance just yet. Instead, her mother is making her complete her “Life List,” a list of dreams that thirteen-year-old Alex wanted to accomplish.

As she completes each item on the list, Alex will receive a DVD that her mother recorded and then she will receive her inheritance once the list is complete.

With the help of her lawyer, Bradley Ackerman (Kyle Allen), she completes the list and collects the DVDs one by one. With the list, she ends up learning how to play “Clair de Lune,” gets a tattoo and makes peace with her father. Throughout the process, Alex ends up learning about her family, her friends and most importantly, herself.

The movie, at its core, is very sweet. The recurring theme of living life to the fullest and completing your dreams really shines through. Alex is constantly reminded that she must accomplish the things she’s passionate about because we are never guaranteed time.

Also, Alex learns that she should never settle for love. She is given another list, this one made by her mother, to evaluate whether or not someone is truly the one. I found a lot of comfort in the checklist, even writing it down for myself. Between these things, I really think the themes are important for a lot of people in their twenties.

However, there was a fair number of critiques I had with the movie. As Brad helps Alex with the list, the audience sees the two slowly but surely fall in love. However, Brad has a girlfriend throughout the movie. Only right before he and Alex get together do they break up, and the audience doesn’t even know, insinuating a cheating plotline.

Cheating plotlines really get under my skin. Brad having a girlfriend served no real purpose to the plot overall, and I didn’t understand at all why he wasn’t just single. It would have been better for everyone.

Another critique I had with the movie was the uber-cheesy dialogue. For example, Alex sees an attractive man on the subway on the way to work while she’s reading “Moby Dick.” After making eye contact with the man, she proceeds to say, verbatim, “I know what you’re thinking: What’s a girl like me doing with a book like this?”

Needless to say, I paused the movie to get up and do something else to process the second-hand embarrassment.

There were moments like these littered throughout the movie. While I didn’t pause every time, because I never would have gotten through the whole thing, there were some lines of dialogue that I couldn’t help but cringe at.

Overall, though, I did enjoy the movie. Despite its flaws, I shed a few tears at the end and it left me thinking about my own mortality, which automatically bumps up its rating for me.

It’s definitely worth at least one watch, especially if you feel a little lost in life.

Now, I have to go hug my mom and make my own life list.