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Parents' Guide to

All I Wish

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Unlikable character in flat romance; sex, swearing.

Movie R 2018 94 minutes
All I Wish Poster Image

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The one-day-per-year gimmick at the heart of this flat romance never really clicks, possibly because Senna isn't particularly appealing, staying shallow and unchanging throughout. Stone can be a potent actress, but she chose poorly with All I Wish (an ill-conceived replacement title for the original one, A Little Something for Your Birthday). Senna is a mature woman who behaves like a college-age girl, flighty and rudderless. It's difficult to believe that she would have made it this far in life.

The writing and directing by Susan Walter -- her debut -- has a nervous, twitchy quality, and though All I Wish is billed as a romantic comedy, it's not especially funny. Like Goldwyn's Adam, who's forced to sing a karaoke song in one scene, it's tone-deaf. Interstitial scenes between birthday visits feature "interviews" with some of the characters; weirdly, these contain some of the best, most soulful bits of writing, even if there's no reason for them to exist. The movie also tacks on a subplot about cancer, presumably to add tears to the laughter; it, too, fails. When Senna's happy ending eventually comes, it feels completely unearned.

Movie Details

  • In theaters: March 30, 2018
  • On DVD or streaming: May 1, 2018
  • Cast: Sharon Stone , Ellen Burstyn , Tony Goldwyn
  • Director: Susan Walter
  • Inclusion Information: Female actors
  • Studio: Paladin
  • Genre: Romance
  • Run time: 94 minutes
  • MPAA rating: R
  • MPAA explanation: some sexual content and partial nudity
  • Last updated: July 16, 2022

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