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Wish 143 (S)

2009

Ian Barnes

Samuel Peter Holland, Jodie Whittaker, Dean Andrews, Oliver Arundale ...

6.4

36

Drama David, a teen-aged terminally ill hospital patient,is visited by the Wishman,who can offer him the opportunity to meet footballers or try something exhilarating before he dies. Sadly the Wishman cannot fulfil David's one desire,to lose his virginity. A newspaper advert does not have the desired effect but,thanks to the friendly and wholly unconventional hospital chaplain, David does indeed get his heart's desire in the company of warm-hearted working girl Maggie. [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Peter Debruge Variety	"Brit TV helmer Ian Barnes follows with the extremely satisfying emotional entry "Wish 143," centered on a teenage cancer patient whose dying desire is to lose his virginity. Working from Tom Bidwell's sharp script while anchoring the whole enterprise with a perfectly unsentimental performance from you-saw-him-here-first young thesp Sam Holland, Barnes defies every bad-taste trapping such a story might suggest to deliver a warm, witty and wonderfully lived-in portrait of a boy dealing with premature mortality in the most understandably human way imaginable. Expect everyone involved to parlay this treasure into feature-length industry work. "
		Robert Abele Los Angeles Times	"The standout, however, is Ian Barnes' "Wish 143," a sterlingly acted piece of wry melancholia about the scheming surrounding a cancer-ridden teenage boy's libidinous response to a charity's wish-granting gesture. Unexpectedly funny and effortlessly touching, it's a story of rapidly diminished time conveyed with fittingly economic artistry, the hallmark of any truly memorable short film."

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