Spoiler Warning: This article discusses major plot points from Don’t Say Good Luck.

I went into Don’t Say Good Luck expecting a cute little movie starring Adam Sandler’s daughter.

That’s it.

I love Adam Sandler’s work. I’ve seen both of his daughters act before, so when I saw Sunny Sandler was starring in a new Netflix movie, I was already interested. Then you throw Melanie Lynskey and Max Greenfield into the mix and, yeah, I’m watching.

What I was not expecting was to sit there bawling my eyes out.

And I mean bawling.

Because somewhere along the way, Don’t Say Good Luck stopped being the cute little movie I thought I was going to watch and became something painfully familiar.

Sunny Sandler Is Not Just Adam Sandler’s Daughter

First, we need to talk about Sunny Sandler.

I knew she was talented. What I didn’t realize was just how talented and well-rounded she is.

Sunny plays Sophie Birenbaum, a teenager who lands the lead in her high school’s production of Waitress at almost exactly the same time that her family’s world begins falling apart. Her mother Elizabeth’s cancer has returned.

Sunny has to carry so much of this movie emotionally, and she does it.

There is something I really want to make clear because children of famous actors are constantly going to have their accomplishments compared to their parents:

By the end of this movie, I wasn’t watching Adam Sandler’s daughter.

I was watching Sunny Freaking Sandler.

And honestly? In my opinion, her dad has nothing on her incredible skills.

I say that as someone who absolutely loves and adores Adam Sandler’s work. 💯

This isn’t me taking anything away from him. It’s me saying his daughter walked into this movie and proved that she deserves to be talked about because of what she can do.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only person who saw something special in her. Director Julia Hart has said Sunny was the first and only person they thought of for Sophie.

After watching the movie, I understand why.

And Then There’s Melanie Lynskey

Melanie Lynskey is—and has always been—amazing in everything she does.

There’s something about the way she throws herself into a character that makes you forget you’re watching an actor playing somebody.

You just feel the ride she’s taking you on.

As Elizabeth, she could have easily turned the role into the stereotypical “dying mother” performance designed solely to make the audience cry. Instead, she feels like a mother.

A mother who is sick.

A mother who knows what is coming.

And, most importantly, a mother who is still thinking about her child.

That’s the part that got me.

I Knew Exactly When This Movie Was Going to Get Me

There was a specific moment when I knew I was screwed.

Sophie overhears the phone call revealing that her mother’s cancer has returned.

And I immediately thought:

Yep. This movie is going to make me cry.

What I didn’t realize yet was just how personally it was going to hit me.

Because I have been in Sophie’s shoes.

Not with my mother.

With my grandmother.

My grandmother raised me from approximately the time I was a year old. For all intents and purposes, she was the person who raised me.

Then she got cancer.

She went through the radiation treatments and everything that comes with fighting that disease. Eventually, she was cleared.

We thought we had gotten through it.

Then the cancer came back.

This time it was extremely aggressive, and we knew she was going to die within a couple of months.

There’s something about knowing that someone you love is dying that changes time.

Suddenly there isn’t enough of it.

There could never possibly be enough of it.

And while my grandmother was dying, she was still doing everything she could to make sure I was going to be okay.

That’s what mothers do.

And that’s what I saw in Elizabeth.

Then Came the Scene That Absolutely Destroyed Me

Near the end of the movie, Sophie doesn’t want to do the play.

Why would she?

There isn’t much time left with her mother, and she wants to spend that time with her.

I understood that instinct completely.

Forget the play.

Forget everything else.

Just stay.

But her mother won’t allow Sophie to stop living her life because hers is ending.

And Sophie goes onstage.

She sings her beautiful heart out.

Then we get that moment with her mother watching her sing, just the two of them.

I lost it.

I bawled.

And I mean bawled my eyes out.

I’m crying again writing this, damnit.

Because underneath the movie, underneath the musical and the performances and everything else, there is this devastating little truth:

Sometimes the person who is leaving you is worried about how you are going to survive after they’re gone.

I knew that feeling.

I’ve lived that feeling.

And Don’t Say Good Luck brought it roaring back.

There’s A Reason This Story Feels Real

After watching the movie, learning where the story came from made everything click even more.

Co-writer Laura Hankin experienced something remarkably similar in her own life: she got the lead in her high-school musical while her mother’s cancer was worsening.

That doesn’t make Sophie and Elizabeth’s story a literal recreation of Hankin’s life, but it helps explain why the emotions don’t feel manufactured.

Someone involved in creating this story understood this kind of collision.

Something wonderful is happening to you at the exact same time something horrible is happening to someone you love.

You’re excited.

You’re terrified.

You’re happy.

You’re grieving.

And somehow you’re supposed to be all of those things at once.

That’s life.

Sunny Freaking Sandler

I expected to like Don’t Say Good Luck.

I did not expect it to stay with me.

Melanie Lynskey reminded me once again why she is one of those actors who can completely disappear into a character. Max Greenfield was another reason I wanted to watch in the first place, and the entire cast helps create a family that feels worth caring about.

But I walked away from this movie thinking about Sunny Sandler.

There will probably always be people who introduce her as Adam Sandler’s daughter. That’s inevitable when your father has been one of the biggest comedy stars in the world for decades.

But Don’t Say Good Luck made something very clear to me:

Sunny Sandler doesn’t need her father’s name to make you pay attention anymore.

She can act.

She can sing.

She can make you laugh.

And apparently, she can make a 44-year-old woman sit on her couch and absolutely sob.

Sunny Freaking Sandler.

Remember the name.

And if you’re going to watch Don’t Say Good Luck, maybe grab some tissues first.

Actually, forget maybe.

Grab the damn tissues.