Love of Your Life movie review: Margaret Qualley in Rachel Morrison’s tender romantic weepie

At first glance, Love of Your Life doesn’t promise much. The title alone is enough to suggest a trite, sentimental romantic drama that might belong instead on the Hallmark Channel.

But look beyond that you see some interesting names involved. Firstly, Rachel Morrison, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose directorial debut, The Fire Inside, was shot from a screenplay by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight).

Then, there’s the cast with Margaret Qualley, Aaron Pierre and Catherine Keener, and it’s produced by Ryan Gosling and his creative partner Jessie Henderson.

So, we’re definitely cooking with something.

Your curiosity will be rewarded because Love of Your Life is a tender and emotionally mature portrait of love, loss, grief and forgiveness. It has a devastating supporting Keener performance, and that alone would’ve been worth it.

Written by Julia Cox (Nyad), the story is about Maya (Qualley), a twentysomething nurse in Boston who meets Charlie (Gabriel Basso) and falls in love. Charlie is open and warm, and they soon start planning their life together.

Then Covid hits and tragedy happens, and Emily runs away immediately, leaving behind her best friend Jason (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Charlie’s family including his mum Ruth (Keener).

Emily is weighed down by the gravity of her grief as she moves to Lisbon, a spot she and Charlie once said they would go together. Three years later, she meets Felix (Pierre), a British man, and they spend this beautiful time together, all while she erects barriers.

Emily has defined herself by her loss, and getting close to someone else triggers her fears. As someone who fell out with her only biological family early on in life, she thinks independence is the only way to avoid being hurt.

The plot of Love of Your Life is familiar, but what makes this film distinct is the contours. It’s in Qualley’s anchoring, thoughtful portrayal, it’s in Pierre’s effortless sensuality, it’s in Keener’s emotional heft in just three scenes.

Even if the stops and the destination are the same as what’s come before, it’s the journey, right? That’s a cliché because it’s a truism.

Morrison became in 2018 the first woman to be nominated for a best cinematography Oscar, recognised for her superb work on Dee Rees’ Mudbound. Even though she didn’t serve as her own DP here (Todd Banhazi holds that title for Love of Your Life), this is a film that obviously looks great.

It shot on location in Portugal, Boston, London and New Orleans, and you get a sense of the texture of those places. It also opens up the world for Maya, placing her in locations that are bigger than her inner turmoil.

It doesn’t diminish what she’s feeling, but it gives a sense of how someone carries that pain with them no matter what bigger things are swirling around them. It’s grounding.

Morrison has a deep understanding of how the visuals and the performances talk to each other, and the camerawork creates that intimacy the audience feels with Maya, and especially when Maya allows herself to not just exist in a space with another character, but actually be with them.

Maya might try to be an emotional island the film doesn’t sever her from the audience, and we’re always in her perspective so she becomes someone we care about.

It’s moving in a way that even hardened cynics might themselves thawing just a little bit.

Rating: 3.5/5

Love of Your Life is streaming on Prime Video