Life in a Year

Mitja Okorn's Life in a Year (2020) is a romantic drama that tries to answer a brutal question: what would you do if the person you love had only twelve months to live? The film stars Jaden Smith as Daryn, a 17-year-old track star and aspiring rapper from a wealthy Los Angeles family. His carefully planned future, Harvard, a music career, his father's approval, gets derailed when he falls for Isabelle, played by Cara Delevingne, a sharp-tongued British barista with a punk aesthetic and a secret she's been carrying alone.

That secret, revealed early on, is terminal cancer. Rather than retreat, Daryn decides to compress an entire lifetime of experiences into Isabelle's remaining year. He drafts a 'life list', road trips, concerts, holidays, meeting families, and drags his best friends Phil (Chris D'Elia) and Sammy (JT Neal) into executing it. The film, produced by Columbia Pictures and Overbrook Entertainment (the Smith family's banner), leans hard into the tearjerker tradition, but it also tries to balance comedy, music, and family drama. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Daryn's overbearing father Xavier, and Nia Long appears as Isabelle's mother Catherine.

Released on November 27, 2020, during the height of the pandemic, Life in a Year skipped theaters entirely and went straight to Amazon Prime Video. That timing shaped its reception, critics largely panned it as derivative, but audiences responded more warmly. The film currently holds a 78% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.0/10 on IMDb, a split that says a lot about what viewers want from a romance versus what reviewers demand. [edit]

Daryn (Jaden Smith) is a 17-year-old with a future that's already been mapped out for him. His father Xavier (Cuba Gooding Jr.) runs a successful business and expects his son to follow the same path, prep school, Harvard, corporate success. Daryn, though, has his own ambitions. He raps, writes lyrics, and dreams of making music, even if his father dismisses it as a hobby. On the surface, he's got everything: money, status, a scholarship track record. But when his car breaks down one day in a part of LA he doesn't usually frequent, he stumbles into a coffee shop where Isabelle (Cara Delevingne) works. She's British, tattooed, and completely unimpressed by his charm.

Isabelle isn't interested in a rich kid's attention. She's prickly, sarcastic, and clearly carrying weight she doesn't talk about. Daryn, though, is persistent. He shows up at the shop, learns her schedule, and slowly wears down her defenses. Their first dates are a mix of awkward banter and genuine connection, he's drawn to her honesty, she's surprised by his sincerity. But just as things start to feel real, Isabelle's secret comes out: she has terminal cancer and has been given roughly a year to live.

Instead of pulling away, Daryn doubles down. He creates a list of experiences he wants to give Isabelle, everything from learning to drive to attending a music festival to celebrating Christmas together. He recruits his best friends Phil (Chris D'Elia) and Sammy (JT Neal) to help pull off the grand gestures. His father, Xavier, is horrified. He sees Daryn throwing away his future for a girl he barely knows, and their relationship frays. Meanwhile, Isabelle's mother Catherine (Nia Long) watches with a mix of gratitude and concern, knowing what this year will cost both of them.

As the months pass, Daryn and Isabelle pack in as much as they can. There are road trips, concerts, holidays, and quiet moments where they just talk. Daryn also gets closer to Ron (RZA), a music producer who sees potential in his rap skills, giving him a taste of the career he's always wanted. But Isabelle's health fluctuates. Some days she's full of energy; other days she can barely get out of bed. The couple has to navigate the emotional tightrope of loving someone when the clock is ticking.

The film also digs into Daryn's own growth. He's so focused on giving Isabelle a 'life in a year' that he starts to question what he actually wants for himself. His father's pressure, his own dreams, and the reality of Isabelle's illness all collide. The story builds toward the final months of the year, as Isabelle's condition worsens and Daryn has to decide what really matters, not just for her, but for him.[edit]