Chick Flick Alert!

Yes, this is a chick flick but it's only a one-hankie weeper. It is a sweet story lightened by genuinely funny, whimsical humor, e.g., did you ever see a bundt cake on life support? Yes, read it again. That's what I said. A bundt cake. On life support.

Director Stella Meghie ("Jean of the Joneses"), working from a script by J. Mills Goodloe based in turn on the New York Times best seller by Nicola Yoon ("The Sun is Also a Star"),has crafted a sweet PG-13 movie about young love under very trying circumstances. Meghie has perfectly captured the awkwardness of adolescence and teenagers' heedless embrace of opportunity (plus their annoying aptitude for technology).

Meghie's cast:

• * Amanda Stenberg ("The Hunger Games") Maddy has grown up with SCID (Severe Combine Immune Deficiency) and has never had a normal life (think "Boy in a Bubble"). She is now 18 and hormones are asserting themselves. New neighbors have moved in and she can see them from her sterile home.
• * Anika Noni Rose (LOTS of TV) Maddy's mother Pauline is a doctor and as such she can monitor her daughter's health and can afford the hi-tech environment a patient with SCID requires.
• * Nick Robinson ("Jurassic World") Ollie is a new neighbor. He notices Maddy watching, so he and his sister bring a freshly baked bundt cake to her house. Her mother says she isn't there. Now he wonders; he suspects she is under house arrest.
• * Ana de la Reguera  ("Jane the Virgin") Carla is the kind nurse who comes in each day to check Maddy's vitals. She is also a friend.
• * Danube R, Hermosillo (Lots of TV) in a brilliant casting choice, Rosa looks like she really is Carla's daughter.

We went in confident that this would be fairly predictable. Well, that shows you what WE know! We enjoyed the humor, the attractive stars, the beautiful locations, a surprise or two, and even the cliches.