Love of My Life (2017) User Reviews

A drama of manners

[juliankennedy23 · 5/10 · 8 September 2019]

Love of My Life (2017): 5 out of 10: Anna Chancellor stars as a woman who is given possibly five days to live due to a brain tumor that requires surgery. She is married to Hugo from Vicar of Dibley (James Fleet) and is looking forward to working and spending time with him till the end. Perhaps she will read a book, a short book. At this point, her first husband (Rachel Weisz's brother from the Mummy movies John Hannah) shows up uninvited to win her back before she dies.

The Good: There is some very nice acting in this film by our two main leads (Anna Chancellor and John Hannah) and despite the stagey feel of the whole production there are some very nice speeches given particularly by Chancellor. The movie also threatens to be funny oftentimes and has some almost profound things to be said about death.

The Bad: My wife commented out load about a third of the way through this "you know who would be really good in this Emma Thompson". It was a strange outburst since Anna Chancellor was doing a great job but immediately I saw it. This is an Emma Thompson style character down to the mannerisms. I couldn't unsee it (I also immediately pictured Kenneth Branuagh as the lecherous ex-husband that young girls swoon over because he used to be famous and Helena Bonham Carter as the crazy woman whom the dying woman's first husband left her for.) The movie that quickly developed in my head was leagues more entertaining than what was on the screen.

Love of My Life is about three men (there is also a possible office romance on top of the two husbands and now I think about it that teenage coffee barista would have done in a pinch) who are competing to be Grace's last shag (and by definition one true love?) before she dies of her brain tumor on Monday. By definition, this is black comedy territory. You don't set up a ridiculous premise like that and make a straightforward drama or god forbid a romantic comedy. This would be like remaking It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World as a film noir.

This steering into black comedy territory would explain the entire arc of John Hannah's current wife (Hermione Norris) showing up like Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous but without the warmth. It would also explain James Fleet's entire character as the recovering alcoholic dimwitted current husband who is oblivious to the two other men vying for his dying wife's um... affections.

All the pieces are here for a great black comedy (why else hire John Hannah?) only for writer/director Joan Carr-Wiggin to completely drop the ball and instead go for drama and lots of life-affirming but stagey speeches.

We also get two daughters showing up and of course, they come with subplots that are off subject, out of the tone of the rest of the movie, and take up a lot of screen time for a film that already has serious pacing issues. In all fairness, the repeated line that Anna Chancellor has about her disappointment that at least one of her daughters wasn't a lesbian is a good one. Hannah Emily Anderson as the less of the two daughters puts in a good performance and the arc does give John Hannah something to do in the film other than begging his ex-wife for sex. (John Hannah is actually so good considering some of the material involved I wonder why he doesn't get more higher-profile roles.)

The Ugly: The end of this film is... well let us call it open-ended and dreamy. After an hour and a half with these folks, I was hoping for an ending more in line with 2007's The Mist.

In Conclusion: I know that Canadians are supposed to be nice people but how at least one of these characters manages to get through the movie without being stabbed or thrown out a second-story window is a mystery. The premise is ridiculous and the movie simply can't see it. It is a comedy of manners which only really works if it is a comedy. A drama of manners just doesn't have the same ring.

Betrayals, interrelations, guilt, self-acclaim

[CutUncut2021 · 6/10 · 17 June 2021]

Pity about the weak script, but by some miracle the director has managed to dovetail British and Canadian humour. The two men are a weepy alcoholic and a hardline Scot, author of a bestselling book. The arrival of the blonde English ex-wife of Richard wearing a faux leopard-skin coat is the culmination of class horror: she was married to an award-winning author but dresses like a Primark frump. Betrayals, interrelations, guilt, self-acclaim. Grieving in advance, it's all borderline histrionic. How many British citizens in the last century have actually read Middlemarch by one of the country's greatest authors? My guess is around 2%, including those forced at school, who never reached the end. While the night scene in the bar with her agent deserves an award for poor acting (not entirely their fault, the script is uneven), the café set with the daughter, boyfriend (his wife), and mother is hilarious and too short; more competent screenwriters would have drawn it out into a Greek tragedy/farce. "We are giants, full of rage and joy," says the stricken mother [1:06]. And the best but too-brief comedy scene takes place in yet another café when Kaitlyn meets her online date in the presence of her biological father and the step-sister. The boy is a cute ingenue, eminently eligible, does not even know that the father is an icon of world literature, so the playing field is level. Pity the writer/director didn't take the macabre further, and instead we get plinking pianos and classic American reckoning. In the end, however the Canadians might pitch their differences from their neighbours across the border, they are on the same continent after all (and in the same boat), sharing the abhorrent history of displacement and genocide of the native populations. Not a single non-white non-Caucasian individual in the entire movie. No wonder a third of your tax-paying population is p*ssed as hell.

Surprisingly disappointing

[gillwheeler-14313 · 4/10 · 22 March 2021]

A number of well known names including John Hannah and Anna Chancellor attracted me to this film but it was more like a Whitehall farce.

Husband Tom was overacted and strangely pathetic, I had no idea this was supposed to be a comedy, the introduction to the film did not indicate this was the case.

A waste of a number of very capable actors, worthy of so much more.

A 60 minute flick at best

[cekadah · 2/10 · 14 May 2017]

OMG -- what a struggle to stay with this movie. One hour and forty-five minutes of just one repetitive plot. By the end of this 'thing' I was hoping everybody would crap out via brain cancer.

Does that happen? No! And here's your spoiler (beware I'm going to expose the end of this igganunt flick) - Nobody dies! The viewer must suffer through all these middle age needy people and no reward at the end.

The story is so simple I do not know how the director made it into a one hour and forty-five minute movie. I won't bore you with details. If you want a story and no story at the same time then this is your flick.

A bit hit and miss but still reasonably entertaining

[MattyGibbs · 7/10 · 21 September 2017]

A woman finds out she might only have a few days to live but her ex husband still hopes to win her back.

This is extremely far fetched and the situations are often off putting and forced but there are still enough good moments to make this an enjoyable romantic drama.

It features a good cast ( three of which were main characters in Four Weddings and a Funeral). Although not riotously funny there is a good smattering of funny moments throughout.

Although probably not as good as it should have been considering the cast involved this is still worth a look if you're in the mood for some easy light hearted entertainment.

Get out of my life

[Prismark10 · 2/10 · 21 September 2017]

Despite the title this is not a rom com just a tedious film with unlikeable characters that you will care little about.

Grace (Anna Chancellor) finds out she has a brain tumour and only has five days to live because then she has to undergo a dangerous operation. Her second husband Tom (James Fleet) is distraught and finds comfort in alcohol.

Grace needs to get her life in order, she is a successful architect in Toronto and has two daughters. Then her her ex-husband Richard (John Hannah) a successful turns up in her bedroom proclaiming that Grace was the love of his life and wants her back.

After the horrible way Richard behaves which includes trying to get rid of Tom from his house, Richard's wife Tamara (Hermione Norris) turns up, the woman Richard left Grace for.

It was strange to see so many Brits turning up in Toronto and really little use is made of the city. I cared little about the story and the characters. I could guess who would end up with whom and it was not as funny or breezy it thought it was.

Love of My Life

[blpkst · 7/10 · 13 March 2021]

I found this film to be entertaining with a mostly solid script. The daughters are a bit weak but perhaps that is more to do with the writing of their characters and less to do with their acting abilities. For the rest of the primary characters, I found them to be fleshed out beautifully in the script. Anna Chancellor, whom many may recognize from "Four Weddings and a Funeral," when she adeptly played a most unlikeable character, plays, in this film, an engaging and attractive mature woman who has been given the news that an operable brain tumor might possibly kill her. She takes the news well while her husband touchingly and humorously sobs uncontrollably. I enjoyed the character driven plot. A nice film for a Saturday afternoon.

Overall a very unrewarding and disappointing script

[nigelsmithson · 4/10 · 17 June 2020]

I was hoping for much better than this from such an acclaimed cast, particularly John Hannah.

From the very beginning I was put off; the husband's distraught acting was atrocious. And it didn't get much better.

All six of the main family characters were somewhat unlikable to a greater or lesser extent. The two men (and the 'second' wife) were particularly distasteful. I also abhore characters that constantly tell others to do things which they allow to carry on unenforced i.e. "get out of my house".

The actions of the four married characters at the conclusion of the film were despicable albeit possibly a fair reflection of the declining moral fabric of today's society. The final scene was simply very disappointing.

I think 4 stars is probably an over-rating?

One of the best films I have ever seen

[akf180642 · 10/10 · 16 May 2019]

It's a beautiful, sad and full of metaphors story about being forced to realise whether you've been living your life to the fullest. It IS hectic and is basically a comedy of errors, yet with very good writing and clever dialogues. I think those leaving negative reviews took the story too literally, whereas it's a beautiful and crazy combination of all the things in life happening at once - it kinda has the vibe of 1967 film Oscar, just more serious. A really touching story with real characters and great acting.

Wonderful movie.

[mdoliner43 · 10/10 · 8 January 2022]

Carr-Wiggen is the mind behind this concoction surrounding a (maybe) death sentence. This movie, like "If I were You" has a gorgeous theatrical situation. At last a movie where the characters are not complete idiots, though at least a portion of each of them is an idiot. Carr-Wiggen has a talent for mixing the serious with farce. The movie has the flavor of bedroom comedy played out in a pudding of nostalgia, with new plums being pluckd up along the way. Love plays out like a piece of music, with all its variations. The tucked on ending a suspect came from some business mind, not Carr-Wiggen

One thing that always recommends a movie to me is the actors seeming to enjoy themselves, and in this one they have a ball.