This Uplifting Rom Com Is An Ode To Life, Love & NYC

3 weeks ago

Here's what you need to know about Netflix's brand new film, The Life List

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Shooting to the top spot of Netflix’s top 10 most-watched films in the UK this week is The Life List, a brand new rom com led by Sofia Carson. Here’s what you need to know before watching.

Netflix’s The Life List: Plot, Cast & More

What Is The Life List About?

Written and directed by Adam Brooks and produced by Liza Chasin, The Life List is part romantic comedy, part family drama. We centre on Alex Road (Carson), a young woman who reaches a crossroads in her life. Stuck, she returns to a ‘life list’ she wrote as a teenager, prompted by her mother Elizabeth (Connie Britton). On her journey, Alex uncovers family secrets, finds romance, and learns about her true self. Watch the trailer below.

‘Alex Rose is me, is you, is all of us,’ Carson tells Netflix. ‘At times, alive but not living. She reconnects us to the dreamer we left behind, fearlessly holding her hand as she bravely marches through life.’

The titular ‘life list’ is all about pursuing uncharted territories – those we might otherwise be afraid to explore. Think open mics and attending glamorous events, but also volunteering at a women’s shelter. True to some of time’s greatest romantic movies, all of this is backdropped by New York City.

‘Alex Rose awakens us to life again,’ Carson says. ‘The Life List is a portrait of life. Moving through loss with tears in her eyes, a smile on her face, wit on her lips, as she learns to live again.’

Sofia Carson as Alex and Kyle Allen as Brad

What Is The True Love Test?

In The Life List, Alex’s mother concocts the ‘true love test’, a series of questions to consider when dating someone is getting serious. The questions are:

Is he kind?
Can I tell him everything in my heart?
Does he help me become the best version of myself?
Can I imagine him as the father of my children?

‘People have responded incredibly strongly to that,’ writer-director Brooks says. ‘These are meaningful questions, especially for people of Alex’s age – she’s almost 30 and urgently feels the need to define who she will be – in relation to love and work and family.’

(L to R) Marianne Rendón as Zoe, Chelsea Frei as Megan and Sofia Carson as Alex in The Life List

Meet The Cast Of The Life List

The Life List is led by singer-actor Sofia Carson, a Disney star turned Netflix mainstay. She rose to fame in Disney’s Descendants, but can most recently be spotted in Netflix’s Purple Hearts (2022) and festive thriller Carry-On (2024) opposite Taron Egerton. In The Life List, she’s joined by Connie Britton as her mother, Elizabeth, plus brothers Lucas (Dario Ladani Sanchez) and Julian (Federico Rodriguez).

As for Alex’s love interests, there’s video game lover Finn (Michael Rowland), women’s shelter co-worker Garrett (Brit Sebastian de Souza, who you might recognise from Skins, The Great and Normal People), and finally lawyer Brad, played by Kyle Allen, who has previously starred in A Haunting in Venice (2023) and West Side Story (2021).

The full cast of The Life List is as follows:

Sofia Carson as Alex
Kyle Allen as Brad
Sebastian de Souza as Garrett
Connie Britton as Elizabeth
José Zúñiga as Samuel
Jordi Mollà as Johnny
Dario Ladani-Sanchez as Lucas
Federico Rodriguez as Julian
Marianne Rendón as Zoe
Michael Rowland as Finn
Chelsea Frei as Megan
Rachel Zeiger-Haag as Catherine
Maria Jung as Nina
Ben Warheit as Jackson

Connie Britton as Elizabeth in The Life List

What Is It Based On?

The Life List is based on Lori Nelson Spielman’s debut novel of the same name, published in 2013. The film adaptation is a decade in the making, according to writer and director Adam Brooks. ‘The book was brought to me by a producer over 10 years ago,’ he tells Netflix. ‘I loved the central premise and very quickly had a clear idea about how I’d adapt it.’

He and producer Liza Chasin were drawn in by the ‘deep, emotional, and relatable story,’ she tells Netflix.

‘It’s a story of reinvention I hope resonates with people,’ Brooks adds. ‘About those crucial moments when you have to take measure of who you are and ask yourself if you’re truly living an authentic life.’

However, because of the 20-year journey from novel to film, there has been a handful of adjustments – and for Brooks, some of them are personal. ‘The script is faithful to the book, but there’s a lot of reinvention,’ he says. ‘In a way, [the time it took to make the film] was good for me and for the movie. Since I first wrote it, I’ve seen my kids going through their own trials in their 20s, and lost both my parents and my younger brother. The themes of the movie deepened for me.’

Spielman is the author of three novels: The Life List (2013), Sweet Forgiveness (2015) and The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany (2020).

Where Was The Life List Filmed?

The Life List is set in New York City – and it was filmed on location in the Big Apple, too. This authenticity was incredibly important to Brooks, who visited NYC as a child and has spent most of his adult life in the city. It also adds a palpable realism to the film. ‘I think that part of the charm and the strength of movies like this is making the locations feel viable and real,’ Brooks says. ‘I try to feel like people are in the right apartment, the right office, the right space because I think it creates a world around them that deepens the story, but also creates a romance because New York is New York.’

But that New York is the lived-in New York – not the flashy city we’re used to. ‘I wanted to make sure there were no postcard shots,’ Brooks says. ‘For instance, there’s a scene where Alex is walking with her sister-in-law along the Brooklyn Promenade, and as they’re walking, the camera follows them. They come around a corner and the glistening city skyline reveals itself in the background as they’re talking. I wanted the city to reveal itself the way it does when you live here and you’re not paying close attention until inevitably you stumble upon a corner or a park or a building that reminds you of the power and beauty of the city. We capture the romance of New York, but in a way that feels like the city truly belongs to the characters.’

‘Adam wanted The Life List to be an ode to New York, but to the real New York,’ Carson adds. ‘The New York that Alex would’ve lived in.’