All My Life Review: A Tragic Rom-Dram Without All the Emotional Manipulation

All My Life doesn’t have to try too hard to make you cry. Based on a true story, the romantic drama follows Solomon Chau (Harry Shum Jr.) and Jennifer Carter (Jessica Rothe), an adorable couple whose perfect romance is rudely interrupted by a devastating cancer diagnosis.

Sol and Jen meet at a sports bar where the would-be chef charms the psych student by dunking on his embarrassing friends (one played by SNL’s Jay Pharoah), and viewers are immediately swept up by a romance for the elder millennial age. This is where Todd Rosenberg’s screenplay shines: Jen and Sol’s banter is fresh and relatable; Shum Jr. and Rothe’s chemistry is off the charts. Just ignore the cheesy opening voiceover.

The sweet, breezy relationship between not only Sol and Jen, but their group of found family makes Sol’s subtle aches and pains all the more stressful to witness before his official diagnosis: liver cancer. Despite recently staging a purposefully cringe public proposal worthy of Shum Jr.’s Glee days, Sol finds his interest in planning a wedding and further binding Jen to his side waning.

Instead of big, melodramatic scenes, the heartbreak in All My Life lives in small moments: Sol’s inability to enjoy food on his meds, Jen’s breakdown in her car after bad news, a close friend who vanishes once Sol receives his diagnoses. These flashes of honesty permeate what may feel like an otherwise glossy hour and a half.

And yet, for all the tragedy inherent in this story, this movie is not actively trying to destroy you or rip the tears from your ducts. At every moment, All My Life is about living each day to the fullest, a message that hits home even before Sol’s health declines.

All My Life is not a movie for everyone. In the midst of a dumpster-fire year and a global health crisis that only highlights the blatant criminality of the U.S. health care system, a somewhat saccharine sick flick that romanticizes a GoFundMe wedding after expensive cancer treatments suck a sweet young couple dry may rub some the wrong way. Understandable.

But if you’re looking for a charming romance and cathartic cry that doesn’t leave your heart feeling like a chunk of lead—and trust me, that’s exactly what some of us need right now—All My Life delivers.

Emily Tannenbaum is an entertainment journalist, critic, and screenwriter living in L.A. Follow her on Twitter.

All My Life is in theaters now and will be available on-demand beginning December 23.

Originally Appeared on Glamour