Better Late Than Never: 'Mayflies' Is a Revelation
On paper, Mayflies is entirely straightforward, a weepy about two lifelong friends navigating a terminal cancer diagnosis in ways that are dignified, messy, and loving til the end. On-screen, it’s a revelation, a profoundly moving meditation on how the loves of our lives – romantic, platonic, familial — interweave with each other and memory. It’s a portrait of people making the best decisions they can when presented with only bad options and being so focused on past mistakes that new mistakes are an inevitability. And yes, it’s about death, too.
The story – adapted for the screen from Andrew O’Hagan’s novel of the same title by Andrea Gibb – opens with Tully (Tony Curran) cajoling his lifelong best friend, London-based literary figure Jimmy (Martin Compston) into driving up to Scotland to see him, and then sharing the news that he has late-stage metastatic cancer throughout his body – even “in my lymph nodes, whatever the fuck they are” – then immediately asking Jimmy to help him die with dignity before his condition worsens to the point that he lacks the basic motor control to lift and self-administer two small paper cups of medication, at a clinic in Switzerland, where medically assisted suicide is legal.
Jimmy’s horror at Tully’s request is amplified when Tully confides that although his longtime partner Anna (Ashley Jensen) knows about his diagnosis, she has no idea that he intends to exercise what little control he has by taking his own life. The friends spend the first half of the two-episode series in a complex dance of negotiation. Jimmy hopes against hope that Tully will drop the request; perhaps his prognosis will improve with treatment, or maybe the joy of marrying Anna will make him choose hospice care for his end-of-life arrangements. No dice. Tully is determined to relish every good moment he has left and insists that Anna’s last memories of him be as close to normal as possible. Spirits are to remain high, jokes are to be guffawed at, delicious meals are to be relished.
