Grief is rarely a linear experience, and the notion of simply “moving on” after losing someone can feel almost cruel in its suggestion that love is something we’re expected to leave behind. It’s this emotional complexity that sits at the heart of Love of Your Life, the beautifully observed romantic drama from director Rachel Morrison (The Fire Inside). Starring Margaret Qualley as Maya, whose chance encounter with Charlie (Gabriel Basso) blossoms into a sweeping romance, the film explores what happens when the future you’ve imagined is suddenly taken away, and how rebuilding a life doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning the one that came before. Rather than offering easy answers or conventional notions of healing, Morrison’s film embraces the messy, unpredictable nature of grief, whilst celebrating the many forms love can take along the way.
Speaking with our Peter Gray ahead of the film’s streaming release, Morrison reflected on her own experiences with loss and why it was important to portray grief as an ongoing process rather than something to simply overcome. Their conversation explored the ripple effects of heartbreak, the unexpected ways friendships can both fracture and strengthen during times of personal tragedy, and the importance of forgiving others, and ourselves, as we navigate life’s more difficult chapters.
Love of Your Life is so beautiful, and it’s the kind of story that we need to see right now. I wanted to ask about moving on after losing someone, because I always feels there’s something slightly cruel about that expression. It suggests leaving someone behind. Did you approach this story as one about moving on? Or was it more about learning how to carry a great love into a life that no longer looks like anything you’ve planned?
I mean, you should speak for me. That was perfect. I think it’s the latter. I choose option B.
And I do think that’s something that, you know, a lot of films, in their portrayal of getting over grief or heartbreak, make it seem like people just bounce back. It’s moving on, and I don’t think that’s particularly true to life, at least not in my experience as somebody who has lost a great deal in my life.
Hope is that you can carry those people with you, those experiences with you, the you that you were before with you, while also transforming into the you that you need to be to move forward.
And it’s a process. I think that’s really unusual and very cool that this script allowed Maya (Margaret Qualley’s character) and me to illustrate that process, and show that it can take years. You can think you’re okay and then realise you’re not. It can be messy, but on the other side of all of it, you get the benefit of maybe having a real appreciation for life that people who haven’t been through something so significant might take for granted.
Something else that interested me is how grief doesn’t just affect the person experiencing it, it’s the people that love them as well. With Maya cutting herself off from people, were you interested in how grief can unintentionally make us the source of somebody else’s heartbreak?
Yeah, I mean, I think the ripple effect of it all, as it were, is quite profound. And I also think it’s interesting how the people in your life handle it. You’ll have friends who were almost like acquaintances who really show up for you in your greatest times of need, and other friends who are uncomfortable with the discomfort, or with loss or death, and who kind of shy away.
Even those nuances are real and human. And hopefully, those people will show back up. Eventually, you’ll sort of forgive each other and find each other again on life’s journey.
I’ve found a lot of things to be even more personal than I realised. Even last night, we had the New York premiere, and I had friends there whom I’ve known since high school. It made me really appreciate something that we’re obviously pointing to in the film: the love of friends, and how friendships can be so foundational to one’s own survival and journey.
People have their own trauma response, and I hope that the film teaches a level of forgiveness – like we see with Maya and Jason (Patrick Schwarzenegger’s character) – that you can forgive each other for some of the mistakes one makes in your mid-20s, early 30s. It’s been really interesting.
I really liked that as much as it was a love story, it was about friendship and all the different kind of things love encompasses. And you obviously have incredible performances in this (too). Thank you for putting a film like this out there in the world.
Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, I’m really hopeful that people will really see versions of themselves, and maybe forgive themselves a little more quickly, and realise grief is a process. One has to fall back in love with themselves in order to really move forward in life.
Love of Your Life is streaming globally on Prime Video from October 14th, 2026.
