I wanted to see Love of Your Life at TIFF 2026 because I thought it would be a cute little romance, a palate cleanser, but not much else. What I got instead was a journey about loss, opening up and finding yourself. Ahead of the film, they described it as “heartbreaking but hopeful,” which seems pretty accurate. There were a lot of moments I thought Love of Your Life was going to take a predictable turn for the worse, but I am happy to report that it doesn’t fall into the traps of fairy tale endings, making the rest of the film mean that much more.
Margaret Qualley plays Maya, a nurse who is independent and keeps to herself. By chance, she meets Charlie (Gabriel Basso), who completely changes her life. Their fast romance turns into her happily-ever-after until it is cut short, and from there, Maya sets out on a journey that we go on with her. I won’t even say to find herself, since she doesn’t have a goal in mind. But through her experiences, we see many sides of her. We root for her. We get mad at her. We hurt for her. It makes for a very interesting film.
I’m trying to say as much as I can without spoiling too much. In Maya’s story, she has three men in her life: Charlie, who I mentioned, Felix, played by Aaron Pierre and Jason, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger. This film does fall into that whole “you can have more than one true love” trope, but it does it a little differently, and I really appreciate it. It also makes each character (aside from Felix) just a normal person with quirks and imperfections, rather than a bunch of perfect supermodels. Love of Your Life doesn’t define Maya through men, which I was so afraid to have happen, but instead sees her grow on her own and slowly open up to the world.
Metaphors are at an all-time high in Love of Your Life. The water brings her peace; it represents Charlie, and they use it for some really nice moments. There is a whole thing with a mixtape I won’t spoil, but it leaves us with a beautiful story beat that is, like they said, heartbreaking but hopeful.
Margaret Qualley surprisingly wasn’t on my radar, though I recognized her, and having looked at her past credits now, I am very impressed with her range. In Love of Your Life, she is primarily pretty innocent, though at times they throw in some dark lipstick to try and make her a bit edgier. It doesn’t really gel with me, and is reminiscent of her character in Honey Don’t. A bit dry, a bit flat. Not bad, though. I think what they were going for was something colder, and it worked well enough. Basso’s Charlie was absolutely perfect. The running theme is that everyone loves him, and if they didn’t nail the casting here, the story would have suffered. He was a delight.
Aaron Pierre plays Felix, a tall, handsome man Maya meets, and she learns some important lessons from her time with him. Pierre is the perfect combination of sexy, serious and soft, which makes him hard not to fall in love with. Patrick Schwarzenegger is likely the weakest of the cast, but has the challenge of playing a goofy sidekick-turned-grown-man, and he isn’t particularly thriving in either. They pulled a She’s All That with his style, but it needed something more. The chemistry between him and Qualley is great though, and they seem like they genuinely laugh a lot.
As I mentioned, I really thought Love of Your Life was going in a specific direction more than once, and I am very happy it didn’t teach the message that romantic love is all a girl needs. The movie isn’t changing lives, but it made me feel something, and that’s all I can ask for. Though I will say, I find the movie poster particularly tasteless; there is no reason to market her half-naked for this film.
