If you’re in the mood for a fulfilling cry, you’re in luck.
Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells star in the emotionally resonant and offbeat Miss You, Love You, which will air on HBO Friday, May 29, at 8 p.m. ET.
The film is from writer-director Jim Rash, who played Dean Pelton on Community and won the Oscar for his screenwriting adaptation of the 2011 George Clooney heartbreaker The Descendants. It follows grieving widow Diane (Janney), whose estranged son sends his personal assistant, Jamie (Rannells), to help her plan his stepfather’s funeral. The strangers navigate an intense week together, learning surprising family secrets and wrestling with how to help each other — all while dodging many elephants in the room.
The plot sounds sadder than it is: This quiet, character-driven piece feels like a play (it was originally conceived as one), with Rannells and Janney often sitting together and having big conversations that unspool in unexpected, darkly funny ways.
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Rash was inspired to write the film after his sister brought her assistant to their father’s funeral. “He didn’t know anyone in the room, and I thought that was such an interesting lens to see us [through], when we’re most vulnerable,” Rash told the Arizona Daily Star.
With support from the hilarious Bonnie Hunt and Oscar Nuñez, Miss You, Love You takes something very niche and fashions it into a story about universal themes, like the fear of loss and risk of emotional honesty.
It’s the kind of memorable movie that used to be made quite often. Now we’re lucky if we get a handful of gems like this once a year. Treasure it.
Below, what other critics thoughts of Miss You, Love You:
The Hollywood Reporter: “Miss You, Love You is hardly what you’d call unpredictable; if you’ve seen one indie drama about an unlikely friendship between two strangers, you can guess the basic outline of this one. But it benefits from the fact that there’s no pre-existing template or obvious destination for the relationship between a widow and her son’s personal assistant. The story is able to wander freely through their hurts, swerving or doubling back as needed.”
New York Times: “In the strained dramedy, Allison Janney goes to some intensely emotional places for an obvious reason: Her character, Diane, is newly widowed. But Janney veers from fury to reflection to tearfulness so vigorously it’s as if she knows that heavy lifting is required to take this story off the page.”
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Screen Anarchy: “Jim Rash’s original screenplay is filled with razor-edged dialogue that is pumped full of family conflict, portents of personal revelations, and hints of life-changing secrets to be revealed. Sometimes it feels too neatly manufactured and overly melodramatic, engineered for blow-ups and vehement shouting. Even so, several elements keep it moving like a freight train: the film’s swift pace, running just 97 minutes, the snappy humor, which goes beyond snippy one-liners, and more than anything else, the superb performances by Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells.”
