I don’t remember the last time I walked away from a film legitimately annoyed that it exists and shocked that it has to go through several rounds of people who thought it was a good idea to get here. Up Against It certainly did that at TIFF 2026. It is impossible to describe what I am feeling about this film without spoiling some things, so if you’re intrigued by my outrage, read on; if you don’t want spoilers, hold off.
Up Against It follows a group of people all tied to one girl, Rose. Her parents, Álvaro (Antonio Banderas) and Saffron (Eva Birthistle), have long been separated and finally sign their divorce papers. They are each devoted to their respective partners, and everything seems peachy keen until it’s revealed that Rose is very sick.
The divorced pair can barely stand to be in the same room, and neither appreciates the new partners either. Rose is constantly worried about everyone else, and now, to save her, it is suggested that the pair who hates each other use IVF to create a saviour baby for a stem cell transplant to save Rose.
The medical team involved is “hesitant” even though it was entirely their idea, and says they can’t ethically do this unless everyone can agree to co-parent peacefully. The doctors tell the partners to take their time, and then immediately watch them get coerced into agreeing on the spot and storm off…and then they totally accept that and approve the procedure. The plot thickens from here and doesn’t get better, but essentially two divorced people make a baby to save their daughter, and this was what someone considered “an inventive spin on the screwball comedy.”
I am not easily offended. I can’t even say that this offended me, per se. I’ve laughed about some dark, dark things. But that Up Against It is supposed to be some version of My Sister’s Keeper but with more lols is insane to me. It just doesn’t work. Not on paper and certainly not on screen.
I’m disappointed because for the first 25 minutes of the film I really enjoyed the tone, and Rose as a badass, take-no-shit young woman. I feel like there was something there with these characters, possibly something there with a lot of the story too, but it’s like the writers tried to cram everything they could possibly think of into Up Against It, including every genre, and the longer it went on, the worse it got.
And I mean that when I say it. Everything that could go wrong. Every ending you can think of. What if we just gave the movie all of them? I am a divorced mother of two with a new husband. I SHOULD be the target audience for this film. I should understand the dynamics of the couples, the parents, the need to do anything to save my child. I also have a wildly dark sense of humour, so I can laugh at the worst of times. But there isn’t a moment in Up Against It where a single decision seems to make any sense, aside from “save the girl, save the world” (Heroes…anyone?).
What I originally thought while watching the film was that perhaps it was a poor adaptation of something with a lot more material. Perhaps a book—one where characters are better developed, and storylines had more time to be explored. For instance, Lara is an artist and a musician, but toward the end of the film she is basically running a soup kitchen, and they spend a ton of time there.
Good on her, but it wasn’t a part of the story we knew about for her, and made little sense to pull in aside from pushing a plot point in making Álvaro pay. Or how about Saffron leaving her daughter alone for a major procedure, which, itself is an unlikely choice from a mother to make, to then have Rose break down and say she was wrong and wished her mother was with her and then in the next breath leave her alone in her hospital room again because Rose told her to. Make it make sense.
I could go on and on and pick at things like that, but we would be here for ages, so let’s move on. The acting in Up Against It, separate from the writing, is actually pretty good. Bandaras is charming, as usual, though he will always be my Armand. Birthistle seems like a mother who is taking charge to save her daughter, and the small bickering with her ex-husband is believable and relatable. The team can write cute comedy, and small moments of levity can be welcome, but to make them what we are supposed to be highlighting, it just didn’t fit.
Rose (Eden Hamilton) was funny and likeable, and even believable when she got sick, but I felt like some moments felt a bit over the top. The partners played their part and were the most likeable, relatable people we saw. Hell, I’m surprised Up Against It didn’t throw another curveball and have them get together in a quad. In all seriousness though, Lara (Úrsula Corberó) really embodies the nurturing, protective woman who wants what is best for Rose. Kingsley, played by actor Arinzé Kene, is absolutely the good guy every girl dreams of and plays it to a tee.
I sat with my thoughts on this review for a while before I finally accepted it. Up Against It tries to blend things that just don’t work, or perhaps the people blending them just don’t have the touch it needs. It’s sad, because the actors could have pulled together something lovely, and unfortunately, they just didn’t have the source material to support them.
