Nothing to Lose

John Q meets The Fault in Our Stars in this French feature drama, Nothing to Lose (original title: Jusqu'au bout). A powerful story of one mother’s unrelenting resolve to save her son, eschewing law and order to get him what he needs to stay alive.

Nawell Madani plays Jada, a fierce boxing instructor whose son Noa has been diagnosed with leukemia. To make matters more complex, Noa is not her biological son, making tracking suitable bone marrow donors incredibly difficult. In a race against time to track down Noa’s biological parents and anyone else who might be a match, Jada throws everything she has against the establishment, upending the rules around anonymity, finding herself in the centre of a siege inside Noa’s hospital, where he is rapidly deteriorating, and she is being surrounded by armed officers.

Poignant but not manipulative, Nothing to Lose is a tearjerker, but it’s a movie that earns its emotional moments; it's not deliberately hurting the audience. Jada is a brilliantly written character, the viewer being given a solid amount of background before the more action-based events take place. We really care about the characters, especially once Noa embraces the other sick kids on his ward. The storyline is carefully plotted, with enough unique elements to make it feel bold and fresh, which is a challenge when serving up a cancer-heavy movie.

The film does spend a fair bit on Jada’s poor relationship with her ex Paul (Guillaume Gouix), a workaholic whose absenteeism has left him getting the cold shoulder from Noa. This never really gets fully resolved, but there are moments between the two that enhance the drama and tap into the potential differences between mothers and fathers (albeit generalising).

Themes of humanity, bureaucracy, and the depths of parental love all come to the fore here, making the film (which is new to Netflix this week) suitably laden with gravitas rather than a shallow ploy to turn a very sad tale of grief into a schlocky action thriller. Instead, Nothing to Lose is a smart and memorable piece of filmmaking that will stir something in most conscientious viewers, particularly parents.