All My Life Is A Tearjerker That Works

All My Life(Video On  Demand)

Starring  Jessica Rothe, Harry Shum Jr

Directed  by  Marc Meyers

Rating: ***

 If you are a sucker  for  romantic comedies with a tragic twist then  this is  just what  the doctors  will  prescribe  for you. Shamelessly schmaltzy and  not  afraid to wear its heart on its  sexy sleeve, All My Life tells the true story of  a couple Solomon Chau and  Jennifer Carter in America whose wedding  plans were  shaken when  the groom was diagnosed  with  cancer  just weeks before the wedding.

 It’s a heartbreaking story  and one that  could fall apart under the weight of its intrinsic sentimentality. It is to  the  director’s credit(Marc Meyers earlier  directed  the heartwarming  How He Fell In Love)that he keeps  a tight  control over the tears and focuses on  the effort to keep life going  on a normal keel even while the couple’s dreams fall apart.

For a  film that has no big names in the cast the tragic drama  is surprisingly  effective. The  role model seems  to be the 1970  blockbuster Love Story where Ali McGraw died so  beautifully in the arms of a sobbing Ryan  O’Neil that dying almost became  fashionable  in  love.

 Here  the  focus is  not  on dying but on  making the best of the  time that the couple  has left on earth.The  passages of romancing are  moving and the bouts of ill temper,understandable. At one  point  Solomon , a passionate chef by  profession , hurls  hurt  at his   sweetheart  for having lost the  power  of  taste. For  a man who deals with food, that’s death.

Such moments  are  deeply  effective in conveying the  unfair blows that life deals so unexpectedly. Jessica Rothe and Harry Shum Jr are no Ali McGraw and Ryan  O’Neal. But they have a  certain combined charm that takes  the treacly tale  tirelessly to its tearful terminal. The supporting cast  is truly supportive in this case. The friends of  both the bride and groom  go out of their way to  make the couple’s wedding happen. Since the couple  has  spent  all its savings on his treatment the friends  initiate an online funding for their wedding.Money pours in.

 To this I  say, thank goodness!  Kindness lives even as fate  gets brutally  unkind.Go for this one and  have a good cry.