By Megan Bianco

Gradually over the past five years, Drew Barrymore has made it apparent that she’s not really focused on her acting career anymore. This autumn season she has both her second memoir, Wildflower, and the buddy tear jerker “Miss You Already” co-starring Barrymore with Toni Collette. The bittersweet mix marks a break from actress-producer to entrepreneur-family woman. It’s no surprise her new film is a women-penned ode to friendship seeing how much Barrymore values her friends after overcoming so many personal battles.

When Jess (Barrymore) moves to London when she’s 8 years old, she quickly befriends wild child Milly (Collette) and the two develop a lifelong friendship. Over the years, Jess settles down into normalcy with her career and husband, while Milly continues her partying, sporadic ways despite having an office job and a family at home. By the time they reach 40, Jess finally fulfills her longtime wish to be pregnant, while Milly receives a blow with news that she has breast cancer.

Dominic Cooper and Paddy Considine play Milly’s and Jess’ husbands, and Jacqueline Bisset appears as Milly’s showbiz mother. “Miss You Already” was directed by Catherine Hardwicke whose eclectic career spans from the indie hits “Thirteen” (2003) and “Lords of Dogtown” (2005) to the guilty pleasures “Twilight” (2008) and “Red Riding Hood” (2011). She brings Morweena Banks’ radio play to the big screen, and like most of her movies, even if they’re not perfect, you can tell Hardwicke cares about the characters and story she’s filming.

Though there are plenty of sappy and saccharine moments and awkwardly paced reaction shots, everyone still looks like they genuinely were dedicated to making the film. Collette continues to be one of the most consistent character actresses in cinema, and delivers the serious, cancer moments effortlessly and confidently, while clearly having fun with the party scenes. Barrymore, is mostly the straight man here with many scenes where Jess is supporting Milly, and she does it well. “Miss You Already” isn’t on the same level as “Terms of Endearment” (1983) or “Steel Magnolias” (1989) with witty characters or dialogue, but it’s good enough to watch with your girlfriends at home on a weekend.

Megan Bianco is a Southern California-based movie reviewer and content writer with a degree from California State University Northridge.