Reel Review: Suze (2025)

Heartfelt and sharp-witted, “Suze” is a dazzling dramedy that explores the messy beauty of unexpected connections and surprising bonds.

It is an absolutely heroic feat to remain kind, optimistic, and joyful in the face of monstrosity—to remain in love with life after life has continuously beaten you down. Only the best of us can manage it, while the rest of us mortals look on with a mixture of awe and envy, maybe even a bit of latent disgust born out of our insecurities.

In the dazzling dramedy Suze, Michaela Watkins (Heart Eyes) shines as Susan, a middle-aged woman who begins the film by discovering her husband Alan’s (Sandy Jobin-Bevans) affair with his sexy golf instructor Jacinta (Sorika Wolf) in the worst possible way—walking in on the two having passionate sex in their pool while confessing their love for each other.

Fast forward five years. Susan’s daughter, Brooke (Sara Waisglass), is about to graduate high school and start college.

Brooke is dating Gage (Charlie Gillespie, Totally Killer), a boy Susan pegs as a beautiful, driftless dummy from a bad family—his mother is incarcerated—destined to amount to very little and not remotely good enough for her pretty, popular, “perfect” daughter.

The intensely affable Gage calls Susan “Suze”—a term of endearment she loathes, disgusted by the level of inappropriate familiarity from a boy she urges her daughter to dump.

However, Suze is unaware of Gage’s genuine affection for her, a woman who embodies all the loving and nurturing aspects of motherhood he’s been deprived of growing up.

When Suze asks Brooke why she would be with a boy like Gage when she could have anyone she wants, the impudent teen cites how doting and devoted he is to her; she loves the attention and the adoring way he looks at her.

It’s not about Gage, we realize; it’s about how Brooke sees her own reflection in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Suze and Gage’s fragile worlds are about to be shattered, and the wrecking ball is the young woman they both adore.

Suze is perimenopausal. Her ex is now married to his mistress, and they’re expecting a child—even though Alan told Susan he never wanted another kid. This is clearly a point of contention as Susan now faces the prospect of life alone without her only daughter.

Brooke has just callously dropped a bomb on her, the first of many, announcing she won’t be attending her local college and living at home as previously discussed but will instead be moving to Montreal.

To hammer the nail in the coffin, this is a revelation Brooke has happily shared with everyone, including her dad and Jacinta, long before finally letting the heartbroken Suze know about it.

After Brooke moves away, she thoughtlessly breaks up with a lovesick Gage over text while repeatedly blowing her mom off and insisting she doesn’t have time to talk and certainly no time for a visit. She’s got a life to live, and that life doesn’t include the remnants of her boring old past.

Unable to cope with the pain of loss and the only lifeline he had in a pitiless world, Gage attempts to commit suicide.

Brooke begs her mom to visit Gage in the hospital, failing to reveal the news of the breakup, and Suze reluctantly agrees. There, she meets Gage’s aggressively unlikeable and uncaring dad. He informs Suze he’s got an out-of-town work contract for the next couple of weeks and asks her to keep an eye on Gage, who requires around-the-clock supervision.

Suze wants no part of it. But after being cruelly shunned by her daughter and realizing the devastating loneliness of losing the one person who made life bearable, Suze has a change of heart and agrees to let Gage stay with her.

What begins as an uncomfortable obligation evolves into an unlikely friendship as Suze begins to see the incredible heart, depth, and heartbreak beneath the happy-go-lucky exterior she once mercilessly mocked.

It’s in this exploration of found family and the power of kindness that the film truly shines.

 Suze comes to realize her daughter, despite having every advantage in life, is an insufferable, ungrateful brat. Meanwhile, Gage has been gifted with nothing but heartache and obstacles, yet he is sensitive, soulful, and relentlessly kind.

Though this may all sound sappy and melodramatic, it’s played with such sincerity and warmth that it’s nearly impossible not to be swept up in the moving story.

There’s a breathtaking scene about an hour in which we witness the power of their shared bond and how much they need and understand each other. Gage reveals another layer to his soulfulness and emotional intelligence, and the chemistry between these two compelling characters simply sings.

This isn’t a film dripping in contrived sentimentality.

Every moment of pathos feels earned, the characters feel lived in, and the pain is palpable without being melancholic. There are emotional stakes without it ever feeling manipulative.

This is a tale of heartwarming humanity without feeling schmaltzy and superficial.

Like Gage himself, the film is funny and sweet on its surface, but there are layers of depth beneath that shimmering surface.

Co-directors and co-writers Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart aren’t afraid to explore the horror of existence, with themes of self-harm, mental health, parental neglect, emotional abuse, infidelity, and loneliness.

It’s about how we form judgments about people we don’t know, how quickly we write people off without cause, and how our unexamined privilege causes us to view people beneath our station as inferior and lacking worth.

More importantly, however, it’s about how we can play a critical role in helping another person grow and heal—the life-changing power of compassion and empathy. Hell may be other people, but so is salvation. Cruelty can annihilate the world, but kindness can rebuild it.

It’s a potent and imperative lesson in these challenging times.

With tender performances and sparkling writing, Suze is a smart, investing, feel-good film with rich themes that will remind you about the power of connection and compassion.