"Whatever It Takes"

9 January 2021

2 mins 20s

Topic of Cancer.

For nearly a year now, our collective focus has shifted away from cancer as the medical sum of all fears. But it's still out there, creating misery wherever it can. Indeed, as the NHS's resources are stretched to breaking point, cancer has taken the opportunity to wreak even more havoc than usual.

This makes it both incredibly important and incredibly challenging to draw our attention back towards it, and towards the charities which exist to help to combat it. But you could hardly hope to see anything more impactful than this extraordinary film for Macmillan. It takes your breath away with its spellbinding honesty – and, given its frankness about the reality of being stricken with cancer, it has no right to be as uplifting as it is. Everyone involved deserves the maximum credit for combining their talents and commitment to create a film which does not pull any punches in its depiction of cancer's seriousness. Each vignette is loaded with emotional punch – even a moment of levity at 00:57 when a medic unexpectedly dances to amuse a patient is counter-weighted by how gravely ill the man looks.

Director Jonathan Alric builds the piece towards an extraordinary climax – if you've held back your tears for the first two minutes, then surely they'll come as a Macmillan nurse rises to her feet with impeccable timing to comfort a young woman visiting one of her patients. And yet, for a moment with such gut-wrenching power, it is remarkably restrained.

AMV's decision to ask a director with so little experience in the TVC realm to take charge of this project was remarkably bold, and it is gratifying to see this creative courage being so richly rewarded. How ever amazing Ben Polkinghorne and Scott Kelly's script may have been, there is no question that Alric has maximised its emotionality to the fullest extent possible. Bravo, everyone.

UK

Charities