MISS YOU, LOVE YOU Review: Grief Battles Memory

Heart to heart communication requires something more personal than text-message platitudes.

Miss You, Love You
The film debuts Friday, May 29, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

As an actor, Jim Rash is known for his comic performances, almost always in supporting roles as a funny sidekick, as in TV's Community, and for his elastic voice, which has been heard in a number of animated shows. As a writer, he is best known for the Academy Award he earned as a co-writer (with Nat Faxon and Alexander Payne) of The Descendents (2011).

Rash and his writing partner Nat Faxon subsequently scripted and directed The Way, Way Back (2013), co-starring Allison Janney, and the remake Downhill (2020), written with the acerbic Jesse Armstrong. All these experiences have led to Jim Rash's solo directorial debut, Miss Love, Love You, which walks a fine line as grief battles memory.

Mostly, it's a two-hander, and often feels like a stage play in its intimate settings, though the sun-drenched, spare New Mexico desert locations open it up to visual beauties as a backdrop. Luggage in tow, Jamie Simms (Andew Rannells) arrives at the home of Diane Patterson (Allison Janney); Jamie is solicitous from the outset, while Diane is brittle.

Diane's spiky behavior is explained because has just suffered the loss of her beloved husband to Parkinson's disease after decades of marriage. The longtime couple moved to New Mexico from New York City just three years before, and Diane never adjusted to the people or the climate.

Jamie's appearance upsets her because he comes at the behest of her estranged son, a bestselling author who employs Jamie as his assistant. For his part, Jamie is polite, and respectful of Diane's feelings, which means he is constantly walking on eggshells, never knowing when a stray word might set Diane off on an angry rant.

The two of them make funeral arrangements, leaving the confines of Diane's home -- and the strict constrictions of a two-hander -- so that Diane can talk with representatives of her husband's church in the person of a priest (Oscar Nunez) and a choir director (Bonnie Hunt), who happens to be a neighbor, as well.

Diane softens after her initial outbursts, and gradually gets to know Jamie, from whom she hopes to glean some information about her son. (Their interactions have been limited to impersonal text messages, which her son always concluded: "Miss you, love you.") As her son's personal assistant, Jamie struggles to maintain confidentiality, even as he becomes more aware of the chasm that separates mother and son.

Jim Rash's original screenplay is filled with razor-edged dialogue that is pumped full of family conflict, portents of personal revelations, and hints of life-changing secrets to be revealed. Sometimes it feels too neatly manufactured and overly melodramatic, engineered for blow-ups and vehement shouting.

Even so, several elements keep it moving like a freight train: the film's swift pace, running just 97 minutes, the snappy humor, which goes beyond snippy one-liners, and more than anything else, the superb performances by Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells.

The Academy Award-winning Janney (I, Tonya, 2018) begins as an instantly boiling tea kettle, which establishes the righteously infuriated side of her character, a wife who has lost her husband, and a mother whose son refuses to speak to her. Yet she is not all fury; she pilots her character's raging emotions downward to a smooth landing, though beware anything that might set her off again at a moment's notice and start her anger boiling once again.

Playing a character who remains button-downed for much of the narrative, Andrew Rannells takes a little longer to ramp up to his own righteous fury, though it's in a manner that feels authentic and grounded. As a longtime personal assistant with a demanding boss, it makes sense that his character is long-suffering. But that doesn't mean he won't explode, in time.

The exquisite, often raging performances carry Miss You, Love You to unexpected emotional heights, making it easy to recommend the film for all those who can relate to dysfunctional families. And isn't that everybody?