Mark Reviews Movies: ALL MY LIFE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 3, 2020

All My Life is "inspired by a true story," certainly sadder and more tragic than the movie screenwriter Todd Rosenberg and director Marc Meyers have devised. It's the story of a couple, who have a whirlwind romance and are planning to get married. Then, the man learns he has cancer, so the wedding has to be re-planned for a much sooner date.

One doesn't need to know the specifics of the real-life story to know that it had to have been far more complicated, more painful, and filled with much more uncertainty than the relatively rosy spin put on it here. Illness is never easy, never romantic, and never simple, but the filmmakers have done just about everything they can to make it all of those things.

The story focuses on Jenn (Jessica Rothe), a college student studying psychology, and Sol (Harry Shum Jr.), who works at a digital marketing company but really wants to become a chef. The two meet sort of by chance at a bar, when Sol's two friends (played by Jay Pharoah and Kyle Allen) try hitting on Jenn's two friends (played by Chrissie Fit and Marielle Scott). Jenn, keeping her eyes on Sol, and Sol, awkwardly trying to charm Jenn, hit it off, go on a running date (She doesn't run), and, after an out-of-tune-and-rhythm rendition of an Oasis song, share an intense kiss within an hour or so.

One thing the movie gets right—and it goes a long way—is the foundation of this relationship. Rothe and Shum are effortlessly charming, especially in their early scenes together. So much of the first act, indeed, is simply about watching these two play and joke around, exchanging longing and loving looks, and simply endear themselves to us. The actual material of all of this is light enough to float away, and that's kind of the point. It's just about the joy and thrill of new love.

Some other things happens before the terrible news arrives. Sol becomes bogged down in work he hates, and Jenn, who probably could have been developed more as her person beyond her relationship, supports and encourages his desire to start cooking professionally. He gets a job at a restaurant owned by Jenn's cousin. There's a big, sweet proposal scene, in which all of their friends gather together for a singalong, but the sharp pains in Sol's abdomen persist, until, one night, he has to go to the hospital.

That's when Jenn gets the first bad news: There's a tumor on Sol's liver, which can be removed by surgery. Life goes on. The surgery seems to have succeeded. The wedding is going forward according to plan. Some time later, Sol, good guy that he is, tries to lessen the pain of the worse news—that the cancer has returned and is spreading—by giving Jenn the dog she always wanted.

Despite the movie's foundation in a true story, there are many routes the rest of this telling could take. It all comes down to focus and tone. Is the illness what matters, or is the more inspirational side, in which Sol and Jenn's friends and family come together to raise money in order to throw the couple a big wedding as soon as possible, more important? Is this story going to be about the difficult stuff—the treatment, the side effects of it, the constant fear and uncertainty of what's going to happen now and in the future? Is it, instead, going to be about love triumphing over all of this as much and for as long as it can?

At this moment in the story, the filmmakers have to choose. They have certainly chosen, for better and for worse, the more inspirational, more tragically romantic, and broader approach and tone to this story.

It's not entirely dishonest. The scenes of the friends coming up with the plan to raise money and actually doing it are quite touching. Sol has a dark night of doubt, seriously considering the idea of holding off the wedding and treatment, because all he wants is "to be alone with his meds, his doctor, and his end." The movie unwisely bypasses any and all of the effects of Sol's illness, because too much (or, for that matter, any) harsh reality would put too much emphasis on the bitter side of this bittersweet approach.

That decision is possibly the biggest misstep here, especially as the movie arrives its third act. By the way, the very fact that this movie doesn't end with the wedding, instead continuing to move forward, shows that Rosenberg and Meyers don't want to make this a simple, sappy story of tragic romance.

Their intentions are good, but they just don't possess the willingness to portray this story with anything approaching the truth. All My Life takes its time establishing the sweetness of its central relationship, but it rushes through everything that actually matters.

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