OK, movies about protagonists with cancer can be interpreted as something that is an easy shot and over the years films like TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and THE FAMILY STONE will tap into this. In American cinema this is something that can be deemed as classic ‘Movie of the Week’. Push the right emotional buttons, calculate the effect on the audience and watch the tissues come out of their box.
Am I right? Perhaps, but then a film comes along that will take a sensitive subject and push all the right buttons but with the right intent…and effect.
Enter SUNNY DANCER into the cinematic realm and a film that is one of the picks of 2026. I have to admit that I did go into it with some trepidation. The idea at the heart of it – a cancer summer camp – seems at first glance something that could be interpreted as an attempt by a British production to tap into the American market with strategic purpose.
However, hold your horses, as you haven’t seen what unfolds yet.
Ivy (Bella Ramsey) is seventeen, in remission from cancer and not exactly where she wants to be. Tough outside but vulnerable on the inside, her parents Bob and Karen (James Norton and Jessica Gunning) are worried and despairing for her to do better and adapt more readily to the surrounding world on the eve of becoming an adult.
What to do then? Well, it’s not exactly what Ivy is gunning for, but a ‘chemo camp’, where like-sprited and like-conditioned children go, is something that Bob and Karen are keen for her to try. Run by the enterprising and motivated American Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris), Ivy soon meets her peers in the form of Jake (Daniel Quinn Toye), Ella (Ruby Stokes) , Ralph (Earl Cave) , Maisie (Jasmine Elcock) and Archie (Conrad Khan) who come back regularly to experience the camp and bond as much as possible.
Forming part of the senior staff is therapist Lucy (Shalom Brune-Franklin), very aware of what everyone is going through and at first Ivy is determined to show her feisty side when she takes on an influencer on a visit and sort of wins. Clashing with everyone, Ivy is struggling, but as time goes on, things do begin to have greater clarity and meaning….
Serious subjects often prove to be their most effective when the balance of character and enlightenment is utilised in full with dashes and flashes of honesty and profane revelation.
Refreshingly, the teenagers on show here are the best group of kids since SCHOOL OF ROCK. They are honest with themselves, are incredibly profane as British kids are meant to be, backed up by some terrific performances from the adult ensemble. Harris is especially good as the camp director. Ramsey hits it out of the park, but a nod should also go to Stokes as Ella who becomes Ivy’s initial guide.
On top of it all, the handling of cancer in this film is well-balanced and considerate in a story that will touch and soften the hardest of hearts thanks to writer-director George Jaques insightful direction and screenplay. It’s designed to be sentimental, but it delivers so much more.
UK Release date: 14th August 2026. In cinemas now.
Rated BBFC 15 for strong language, sex, and sexual references