Newly available on Netflix, Chanya Button’s BURN BURN BURN is a wonderfully human story of loss and trying to get your life back on track. From a script written by Charlie Covell, the story opens as Seph (Laura Carmichael) and Alex (Chloe Pirrie) mourn the loss of their best friend, Dan (Jack Farthing). Dan had lost a battle with cancer, which he had kept hidden throughout most of his attempts at treatment. His illness and passing have shocked his friends and family and they struggle to make sense of the sudden loss. Dan had a plan though. Ever the fun-loving life of the party, his final request is to have Seph and Alex, the people he was closest to in the world, scatter his ashes throughout the U.K. He has chosen four specific sites that were of particular importance to him, has provided them with GPS coordinates, his step-father’s car, and a series of video diaries for them to play at each location, revealing a little more about their friend and his life.
The film is clever and poignant in its message and in the way it unfolds. Rather than the typical, overly-inspirational, fluffy tale of an oh-so-wise friend dispensing sage advice from beyond the grave and helping these two women learn to seize the day, we get a very honest portrait of death, loss and learning to come to terms with who you are.
Seph and Alex are flawed individuals. Seph has found herself stuck in a perfectly adequate, yet boring relationship with a very nice man (Joe Dempsie) who simply no longer interests her. She struggles to make sense of where her life is and where she wants it to be. Alex is in the throes of a traumatic break-up, having recently discovered her girlfriend in bed with another woman. She demands honesty from those around her, yet harbors a great many secrets that she is unwilling to share, even to her closest friends. But these flaws make them fascinating characters. They are incredibly realistic, relatable and familiar. They could easily be counted among your friend group. It is so easy to see ourselves in them, and to connect with them through their failings, their fears, and above all, their relationships with one another. Over the course of the story, they are forced to face the truths that they would rather not acknowledge and slowly begin to learn more about themselves, as well as Dan.
You might expect the videos he leaves to be trite, cheesy dispensations of wisdom and knowledge that teach these women how to live again, but thankfully, this is not the case. They are as much about Dan coming to terms with his illness as they are about addressing his concerns over Seph and Alex’s respective issues. We see very different sides of Dan as he records the messages at various stages of his illness, and we get to see him reflect on his life and the unfortunate turn things have taken. We see how he is handling his imminent death and how he feels about the choices that his friends have made. You can love someone while simultaneously decrying the direction you see them going in, and there is one powerful moment wherein Dan doesn’t hold back at all. He lays it all out and gives Alex and Seph a brutal honesty they have never before known from him, laying out every mistake and every truth.
The film is thoughtful and honest, and completely driven by the friendship between Seph and Alex. They aren’t bad people, but they do struggle with getting perspective on their lives and the choices that they make. Some moments are rather difficult, but they lead to us witnessing some pretty profound growth for the characters. Carmichael and Pirrie have a wonderful chemistry together, creating a pair that are both complex and dynamic.
BURN BURN BURN is very satisfying in how deep and well developed the story is. It is not a simple, walk in the park film that teaches us to take advantage of every opportunity that life throws our way, not to waste a moment and blagh blagh blagh. There is no cheese here. It takes a very grounded, yet charming stance as we see these women to acknowledge their own flaws and work past them, coming to terms with loss, failure in order to find a happiness they deserve, yet were struggling to reach.
