Jaden Smith and Cara Delevingne Turn a Cancer Diagnosis Into a Year of Living in Life in a Year

Daryn is 17 years old and his father, Xavier, has one rule for him: get into Harvard. That is the whole point of his life, until he meets Isabelle, a girl who sneaks into a rapper’s concert with him one night. She has cancer and does not have much time left. Daryn decides to give her an entire life in the last year she has. Life in a Year, directed by Mitja Okorn from a screenplay by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, asks what happens when the clock stops moving and the people around you keep racing forward.

Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Daryn’s Plan

Daryn sets out to pack decades of experience into twelve months. He learns to cook, drives cars fast, and records his first demo CD with Isabelle’s help. The plan is simple: live every possible life before the time runs out. What the film understands, and what makes it work, is that Daryn is not really running toward a future. He is running from the one his father has already picked out for him.

The film does not waste time on exposition. It drops Daryn and Isabelle into their situation and lets the stakes sit there, heavy and constant. The audience knows from the first scene that this is not a story about a cure or a miracle. It is a story about what you do with the time you have left, and the people you choose to spend it with.

The Father’s Hold

Xavier is the engine of the film’s tension. He believes he is protecting Daryn, but he is actually burying him alive under expectations. When Daryn takes Isabelle home to meet his parents, Xavier fires questions at her, concluding that it is his responsibility to protect his son from distractions, especially ones like her. The scene lands hard because Xavier never once considers that Daryn might want a distraction. He wants a resume and a diploma, not a partner.

Later, at Daryn’s Harvard interview, Xavier asks what skills and abilities he has. Daryn loses himself to memories of Isabelle and answers honestly. He tells his father that all his accomplishments are in the grand scheme of a life he is living only for his father. Xavier is disappointed, and Daryn excuses himself. The moment is a turning point. Daryn realizes he cannot be both the son Xavier wants and the person Isabelle deserves.

The Family Around Him

The supporting cast fills out the world around Daryn. Catherine, Daryn’s mother, intervenes when Xavier almost punches Daryn during an argument. She is the one adult who sees what is happening to him. Phil, Isabelle’s drag queen parental figure, leaves with her when she feels rejected. Ron, played by RZA, and Amanda, Isabelle’s mother, round out the picture of a family that does not fully accept Isabelle. The film gives each character a small, telling moment that adds texture without slowing the story down.

Big Sean appears as himself in a small role. It is a quiet cameo, but it fits the film’s world of young people chasing fame and connection.

Where It Falls Short

The film is not perfect. Some of the life lessons feel obvious, and the ending ties things up too neatly given how messy the setup was. There is also a strain between the romance and the drama. The cancer diagnosis is the engine of the plot, but the film spends more time on Daryn’s rebellion than on Isabelle’s illness. That imbalance means the film sometimes loses sight of why it matters to both of them.

None of that ruins the film. It just means the best parts stand out against the weaker ones. The best parts are the quiet scenes, the ones where Daryn and Isabelle sit together and talk about what they want to do next. Those scenes carry more weight than any speech could.

Final Score

Life in a Year earns its emotional payoff through consistent focus on its central relationship. The film trusts the audience to feel the stakes of a limited time, and it mostly delivers on that trust. It is a drama about a teenager who refuses to let his life be defined by anyone else, and it lands that message with sincerity rather than cheap sentiment.

The cast sells the chemistry between Daryn and Isabelle, and Jaden Smith in particular carries the film’s emotional core. His performance grounds the ambitious premise in something real. Cara Delevingne matches him note for note as Isabelle, playing a girl who knows her time is short and still chooses to live fully anyway.

The film’s biggest weakness is its middle stretch, where the plan-of-the-year premise gets diluted by side plots that do not always connect back to the main thread. Still, the final act brings everything back into focus, and the film closes on a note that respects the characters rather than resolving them.

Here is how the pieces rank:

1. Daryn and Isabelle’s relationship — the heart of the film
2. The family conflict between Daryn and Xavier — the engine of tension
3. The plan-of-the-year concept — the premise that drives the story
4. The supporting characters — useful but secondary

Life in a Year is a sincere, if uneven, drama about making the most of a limited time. It is a film about choosing love over ambition, and about the ways a parent’s love can become a cage. The film stumbles in places, but its best scenes are among the most honest about what it means to be young and afraid of losing the people you love.

8.2 of 10.

Cara Delevingne · drama · Jaden Smith · Life in a Year · movie review