“I feel like if somebody did a study on the percentage of movies that are actually really good set in a city, Boston’s gotta be swinging real hard.”
So says director Rachel Morrison, who makes the observation with skin in the game. Her latest film, a romantic drama called “Love of Your Life,” follows Maya (Margaret Qualley), who, faced with the sudden death of a loved one, departs Boston to travel across Europe in a downward spiral of grief and denial.
Morrison, born and raised in Cambridge, expresses pride in continuing the city’s tradition of cinematic gravitas and credits her local upbringing with shaping her development as a filmmaker. “I got into photography very early. I think 8, 9, 10 years old, I was already printing pictures in a darkroom, which I don’t know if many other towns and cities would have that accessible.”
Shaped by personal loss after losing her mom at 15, Morrison was drawn to the story of Maya. “There was a lot of Maya that I recognized in myself,” Morrison says, “or I recognized a lot of myself in Maya, and it took me a minute to realize that I was ready to deal with some of it, that it was personal enough that I felt like I would be the right director for [this film].”
Following a successful career as a cinematographer, contributing to such hit films as “Black Panther” and “Mudbound” – for which she became the first woman nominated for the Academy Award in cinematography – Morrison made the transition into feature film directing with 2024’s “The Fire Inside.” In her own words, “directing’s a fucking lot. And it’s all on your shoulders and there’s a pressure to it and all of these things, but it’s also really special to be able to see the thing through from beginning to end.”
Morrison calls directing “a thousand microdecisions a day. Literally everything from one button or two, looking at your shirt, or this shade of white or that shade of white to, obviously, the macro, such as casting and things like that. You’re seeing it all the way through to post. You need to have a singularity of vision that’s going to take something from the page all the way to the final product.”
The need for preparation and rapid decision-making is amplified by shooting on location, with “Love of Your Life” including shoots in Portugal, England and, of course, here in Boston. The city’s fickle weather posed challenges, especially when trying to match exterior shots with previously shot interior lighting. The weather also offered small moments of unexpected beauty. When Charlie (Gabriel Basso) first asks Maya out, Morrison recalls, “the wind rushes through her hair; that was weather you know,” adding, “Ultimately the weather gods were on our side. The sun would break out and be the most magical sunset and we could just grab it.”
Don’t expect a straightforward romance from “Love of Your Life.” Says Morrison, “Life is messy and imperfect and so much comes down to timing and right person, wrong time, wrong person at the right time, life’s twists and turns that take things in unexpected directions.”
The director’s advice to audiences? “Go in with an open mind, an open heart and maybe a lot of tissues.”
“Love of Your Life” opens in Boston on Oct. 7 and streams on Amazon Prime Oct. 14. Directed by Rachel Morrison. Written by Julia Cox. Starring Margaret Qualley, Aaron Pierre, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Basso, Catherine Keener, Tamara Lawrence and Corey Johnson. Running time: 106 minutes. Genres: Drama, Romance. Rated R for some sexuality and brief nudity.
