The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is a 2022 American comedy drama film written by Gabrielle Zevin, directed by Hans Canosa and starring Kunal Nayyar, Lucy Hale, Christina Hendricks, David Arquette and Scott Foley. It is based on Zevin's book of the same title.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Directed by	Hans Canosa
Written by	Gabrielle Zevin
Based on	The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Produced by	Hans Canosa Gabrielle Zevin Claude Dal Farra Brian Keady Kelsey Law
Starring	Kunal Nayyar Lucy Hale Christina Hendricks David Arquette Scott Foley
Distributed by	Vertical Entertainment
Release date	October 7, 2022 (2022-10-07)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

The movie begins with Amelia Loman, sales representative traveling to Alice Island and meets A.J. Fikry, a depressed bookstore owner of Island Books. She tells him about her favorite book, The Late Bloomer. He rebuffs her and the book. He doesn’t like many of the well-known books. He then has to unclog the toilet in the bookstore. He goes home and drinks.

The next morning, he wakes up to discover something missing, his copy of “Tamberlane”[[1]]. He then goes to the police and meets with officer Nick Lambiase. He experienced a panic attack that he perceived as dying. He is taken to the hospital. We discover that he is 39 years old living alone after the death of his wife. He sees a man named Daniel talking to a nurse named Jill, then A.J. and Daniel goes to get drinks. Lambiase questions Daniel and Ismay (she is 5 months pregnant and later revealed she had a miscarriage) about A.J. Fikry. They tells him that he is not in a good mental state after the death of his wife, a couple years prior (Daniel’s sister in law). Lambiase goes to tell A.J. that the book is gone.

A.J. talks to a guy about it, then runs throughout Alice Island. He enters a bookstore and meets a 2 year old girl (25 months) named Maya. He brings Maya to Lambiase and tells him that since it’s Friday night and that A.J. will have to watch her for the weekend. He calls Ismay to help him with feeding Maya for the night.

Lambiase comes to check on A.J. and Maya, then tells him that she will be placed in foster care since the parents are currently unknown. A.J. meets with Jenny, a social worker, to discuss how she can help Maya. He then adopts Maya as his daughter. Ismay is named Maya’s godmother. Lambiase is named Maya’s godfather.

Amelia meets with A.J. about some new books she has. Maya develops a cough and starts reading Leon Friedman’s book “The Late Bloomer”. The next day, he calls Amelia to tell her that he loved the book she gave him the first time they met. He asks her to meet for a late lunch date, when she’s in town a couple weeks later. They meet up for the date at a seafood restaurant. They discuss the winter booklist and they walk to the ferry, where Amelia is heading. She tells him why she loves The Late Bloomer. They start to develop a friendship. He discovers that she is engaged to a military man she met online named Brett. She asks him about if his wife was a reader. She also tells him that her friends call her Amy and that they will meet up again in March.

He and Maya walk to the bookstore. Her and Daniel talk about some of the books on the shelves. Amelia calls him to ask if they can meet via video chat. They do so and she tells him that she broke off the engagement a while back. He notices a book in her office. She tells him the book was from her father, who passed away some years back. He then visits her in Providence. She takes him to her bedroom and they sleep together. He wakes up and goes into her office, then leaves her a note there before leaving.

She writes to him about the long distance relationship between them. A.J. asks Leon Friedman to come to his bookstore and meet Amelia and her mother. Friedman then vomits on the ladies after having too much to drink. Amelia discusses with someone named Leonora Harris about why she likes Friedman’s book. She tells her that her dad passed away shortly before it released and it really connected with her because of that. She tells Leonora that she’s a good writer.

A.J. proposes to Amelia and she tells him okay. They decide to get married on Alice Island. Ismay leaves during the wedding and goes into the ocean. Lambiase catches up with her and she comes back to the mainland. They talk about how it’s hard for her to see A.J. married to someone else. While driving home, Ismay confronts Daniel about his parentage of Maya and tells him that he is bad for her, then a truck hits their car killing Daniel and injuring Ismay.

Seven years later, Maya has written a short story for a high school short story contest with A.J., Amelia and Lambiase supporting her. Maya read her short story “The Day at the Beach”, about a single mother named Mary. Maya ended up getting 3rd place and Amelia tells her that she’s so proud of her and the short story. A.J. shares an emotional moment with Amelia and Maya telling Maya that the short story really connected with him.

Ismay enters the bookstore and sees Lambiase. She and Lambiase go on a date, she tells him about her favorite kind of stories. The two of them share a night together.

A.J. goes on a run throughout Alice Island, then collapses after exhaustion. Amelia calls him to tell him to pick up some drain-o on his way home. He goes to the doctor and has a MRI done. He and Lambiase meet up and talk about Lambiase‘s favorite kind of books. He tells Lambiase that he has cancer.

Lambiase and Ismay have a conversation in bed. He reveals that he knows that she was the one who took A.J.’s book several years prior. She tells him the story of Marian Wallace and Daniel Parish having Maya. She says that she checked on A.J. and took the book. She gave Marian the book to sell. Marian tried to give it back to Ismay and rejected by Ismay. The book was sold at auction. A.J. and Amelia discuss how she hates The Late Bloomer now that A.J. is sick. He has surgery to remove his cancer. Maya waves goodbye to A.J. and he waves back as he’s taken to the operating room. Maya reads A.J. stories while he’s laying on the couch. He passes away while she’s reading to him.

The movies ends with A.J. and Maya climbing up the bookstore stairs when she first came into his life. Amelia discusses with Maya about taking a new job in New York. Maya wonders about the fate of the bookstore. Ismay and Lambiase talk about their future buying the bookstore preserving A.J.’s memory. Amelia and Maya leave Alice Island. A guy takes a ferry to Alice Island and enters the bookstore showing Lambiase a book paralleling the beginning of the movie with Amelia and A.J..

Cast

• Kunal Nayyar as A.J. Fikry
• Lucy Hale as Amelia “Amy” Loman
• Christina Hendricks as Ismay Evans
• David Arquette as Officer Nick Lambiase
• Scott Foley as Daniel Parrish

Production

In June 2021, it was announced that Nayyar, Hendricks and Hale were cast in the film. In December 2021, it was announced that Arquette and Foley were cast in the film.

Filming took place in Cape Cod from November to December of 2021.

Release

In May 2022, it was announced that the North American distribution rights to the film were acquired by Vertical Entertainment. The film was released on October 7, 2022.

Reception

The film has a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews. Sumner Forbes of Film Threat rated the film a 7 out of 10. Monique Jones of Common Sense Media awarded the film three stars out of five. Chris Knight of the National Post awarded the film two stars out of five. Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post awarded the film two stars out of four.

Jericho Tadeo of MovieWeb gave the film a negative review and wrote, "Between the Hallmark-y score and certain narrative beats that, in literary form, may read as engrossing, but, on-screen, err towards the overly sugary, Fikry can't seem to find its place between the grounded and the grandiose."

External links

• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry at IMDb
• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry at Rotten Tomatoes