Kipling and the Checklist

Kipling, 18, is not ready for the world. She’s been raised by her divorced parents, a protective Mom and a tired Dad, Josh. Just after her graduation from High School, Kipling’s Dad was killed in an accident, and his best friend since childhood, Amelia, 45, swoops in to take Kipling to college, and provide Kipling with the life lessons Josh had intended to provide during the trip, as outlined in a letter he wrote with a ‘Life Lessons’ list.

As they embark, Kipling quickly discovers that Amelia is wildly charismatic, a woman who commands a big spotlight wherever she goes, but she’s also prone to frightening darkness, terrifying moments where their lives are in danger, and sharp anger at how Kipling is dealing, or perhaps not dealing, with the loss of her father. Kipling is hurt by Amelia’s stinging words and undermines one of the tactics Amelia uses to cope - Kipling lets her mother know that it’s okay to cancel her Dad’s cell service, even though Amelia uses his voice on the outgoing message to maintain the illusion that he’s still alive.

Amelia changes tack, showing Kipling how to really live out loud, to aggressively seek adventures, to meet the world head on - learning to use a camera, write in a journal, swim in a river, meet people with an open heart. Amelia tries to have a one-night stand in front of Kipling, but it doesn’t work out. They spend a freezing night in a camper shell in the mountains, sharing a sleeping bag for warmth, and Kipling misunderstands the closeness she feels as attraction, and Amelia explains how intimacy has a lot of meanings. Amelia abandons Kipling in a river, in fly-fishing gear, and Kipling has to befriend a young fisherman to save herself, and they hit it off.  

By the end of the journey, Amelia and Kipling are best friends, which makes it incredibly difficult when Kipling realizes that the letter with the list wasn’t written before the trip, but before Kipling was born - her father was contemplating suicide because of Kipling’s impending birth, and wrote the list to guide Amelia in how to help raise Kipling. Kipling, overwhelmed by this, runs away into the city. Amelia finds her, explains how he stayed alive until she was born, and he never looked back. They cry a good cry. They find themselves at a diner, exhausted and not eating, when a man at a nearby table grabs a waitress harshly. Amelia, as if by rote, spins out of the booth and launches herself at the man, only to be caught by the throat in his powerful grasp. Out of nowhere, Kipling flies through the air, landing on his chest and pinning him to the table. She has won the moment, and the spotlight is drawn to her power, her energy, in the way Amelia commanded it at the beginning of the film. As they triumphantly return to their motel room, Amelia goes into the bathroom to call Josh, only to discover that his phone is disconnected - his voice is gone! - he no longer is alive!! She has a breakdown, and Kipling comes to her side, consoling her, feeling her pain, and helping to relieve it, much in the way her Dad used to.

They arrive at the University, and when Kipling says goodbye, Amelia points out that the list said nothing about a two-week trip, or college, and anything. Amelia lets Kipling now that they’re buddies now, and stuck together from now on, and that she’ll see her on Thursday, because she is the professor for Kipling’s creative writing class.