Don’t say good luck is a comedy-drama film following a high school theater student who lands the lead role in a school production of waitress while quietly coping with her mother’s recurring cancer diagnosis.
Sophomore student Sophie Birenbaum, a 16-year-old, prepares to audition for her school’s upcoming production of the Broadway musical Waitress. At the same time, a quiet crisis unfolds at home: her mother, Elizabeth, discovers that her previously treated cancer has returned and is progressing aggressively.
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Sophie pours her raw, latent anxieties and family stress into her performance during the tryouts. Her emotional vulnerability deeply impressed the musical director, Ms Parker, who surprised Sophie by casting her in the coveted lead role of Jenna. Initially, Sophie’s parents encourage her to keep pursuing her dream despite the circumstances.
As rehearsal ramps up, Sophie finds herself caught between two completely different realities. In the theater world, she experiences major milestones: she finds an escape in the music of Sara Bareilles, navigates shifting dynamics with her best friend Carolyn and develops her first real romantic crush in her co-star, Jack.
Elizabeth’s health severely declines, marked by fainting spells and visible weakness, Sophie begins spiraling under the emotional weight, at one point attempts to escape her reality by drinking heavily at a high school party, leading to a breakdown. Wracked with guilt over spending hours at the theater while her mother is dying, Sophie decides to quit the musical to stay by her family’s side. However, Elizabeth refuses to let her daughter sacrifice her passion, in a final act of maternal devotion, Elizabeth pushes Sophie to return for the final production.
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The climax of the film features Sophie’s deeply moving opening-night performance, where she sings a devastating rendition of “she used to be mine” rather than ending in a bleak note of death, the movie concludes with a realistic, tender focus on grief and life’s messiness, closing out with a profound final embrace between Sophie and Elizabeth.
Directed by: Julia Hart
Cast: Sunny Sandler, Melanie Lynsey, Max Greenfield, Stephanie Beatriz, Jack Champion
Running time: 95 minutes
Watch movie trailer here:
