By Rachel Morrison knows a thing or two about making an audience feel something. The Oscar-nominated cinematographer behind Mudbound and Black Panther has turned director again, and her new romantic drama ‘Love of Your Life’ — now streaming on Prime Video — might just redefine what the title even means.
Margaret Qualley in ‘Love of Your Life’ (Credits: Variety)
A Romance About Grief, Not Just Love
The film follows Maya (Margaret Qualley), a 26-year-old emergency room nurse living in Boston who falls hard for Charlie (Gabriel Basso), a nerdy-but-charming love interest, in a whirlwind romance that includes a surprise wedding. But when tragedy strikes during the COVID-19 pandemic — the story pivots at March 2020 — Maya’s world collapses, and she runs from her pain, traveling through Portugal, London, and Japan.
The script by Julia Cox (Nyad) then takes an unexpected turn: a new romance with Felix (Aaron Pierre) forces Maya to confront her past and realize there may be more than one love of her life. Qualley told press she was blown away by the script, crying as she read it — though director Morrison admitted saying yes wasn’t immediate. “There’s a lot of myself in this experience and I probably was scared to admit that at first,” Morrison said. “And then it hit me like a ton of bricks… this is, like, kind of my story.”
Subverting the Genre
What makes the film stand out is how it refuses the genre’s usual tricks. Rather than the standard bounce-back-from-heartbreak arc, Morrison has described the film as being about carrying great love forward while transforming into someone new — the messy, years-long process of learning that grief doesn’t simply expire. Her core message, as she puts it: for Maya, finding herself is enough.
The film is also a major showcase for Qualley’s range, putting her in nearly every frame across multiple countries and emotional registers — and earning praise for the ensemble, including Patrick Schwarzenegger and Oscar nominee Catherine Keener. Qualley even spoke with real ER nurses who worked through the pandemic to get the details right, part of what Morrison described as “honouring those who put their lives on the line.”
After a brief theatrical run starting October 7 and its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, ‘Love of Your Life’ is streaming globally on Prime Video as of October 14.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
