A One Mann’s Movies review of “Come See Me In The Good Light”. (2026, 3.5*, 15).
The last feature film from this year’s Oscars that I am likely to see before the awards tomorrow night, “Come See Me In The Good Light” is a documentary following the cancer treatment of US poet Andrea Gibson.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Colorado’s poet laureate, Andrea Gibson, is suffering from ovarian cancer and living with her wife Meg in their remote home in Longmont, Colorado. We follow her ups and downs as she battles cancer and recounts her previous struggles with her gender identity.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC website: “Strong language, suicide references”.)
Talent:
Starring: Andrea Gibson, Megan Falley, Tig Notaro.
Directed by: Ryan White.
Written by: Ryan White. (It feels unusual for a film like this to have a writing credit?)
Running Time: 1h 44m.
Summary:
Positives:
- The camera seems to be constantly with Andrea and Meg as they experience all of their ups and downs.
- What shines through is not a focus on the suffering but the love and support of their friendship group.
Negatives:
- As it focuses on cancer and also touches on suicide, this is a heavy film to watch.
- The ending will have you diving for wiki.
Full Review of “Come See Me In The Good Light”:
How would you deal with a cancer diagnosis?
What strikes you about this documentary is how pervasive the camera is. The ‘team’ (presumably Ryan White and a cameraman) are omni-present in Andrea and Meg’s life, in the bedroom, in the lounge, on the deck. Perhaps this pervasiveness led to me never feeling like they were performing to the camera… but existing and interacting in their ‘natural state’. This allows us as the viewer to join on the couple’s journey: a rollercoaster of emotions as every three weeks a new ‘score’ (from the CA-15 blood test) comes in.
Only occasionally is the fourth-wall broken, as it were, and White asks a question off camera or, in one funny moment, Andrea whispers (audibly) as she walks waaaaaay up the drive “I only realised yesterday that they can still hear us so if I say how much I hate them they hear that!”.
Humour and love in adversity.
What also comes across is the love between the talented poet Andrea, 48, and her much younger wife Meg, in her mid-30’s. They have that sense of fun and rib-taking that typifies a long-married couple. But this is also tinged with the terror of possibly being left alone prematurely.
Some of the film is dedicated to Andrea’s struggle with her gender identity at school and college and her eventual coming-out. Many of her ex-lovers are still her good friends and together with her on her cancer journey: they joke, in ribald fashion, about ‘fingering out’ the cancer.
I have little appreciation of poetry, but this feels good,
I’m not a poet, or a great appreciator of poetry, but the film is interspersed with Andrea’s prose, including at a Denver concert introduced by Tig Notaro (one of the producers of this film). The poetry conjures powerful imagery and we see the impact of her words on the, primarily female and strongly LGBTQ+, members of the concert audience. It seems to be ‘good’ poetry.
How will it end?
This is a heavy film to watch given its subject matter, but it is also a film filled with hope. However dark things sometimes get, there is often a glimmer of hopefulness around the corner. It is also uplifting to see how much Andrea treasures her life. She says at one point “I want my last second to be ‘Damn, I wish I had a million more of these'”, and she lives her life on that basis.
As it is, we leave the story before its end, which will have you diving for her wiki page (which is here, if you’ve already seen the film).
Summary Thoughts:
A heavy documentary about one woman’s cancer treatment and how the couple’s emotions fluctuate over time. This is reflected through Gibson’s powerful poetry. But its a film with a strong sense of love and a strong message of hope as well.
I’m not expecting this one to win the Best Documentary Oscar… but it still just might.
Where to watch?
Until the Justwatch widget is working again…. I saw this on Apple TV+.
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0B8sjxR7Mo.
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