By Joanna Orland
Director Ira Sachs has a tendency to make deeply personal films. The Man I Love is no exception, as it’s inspired by his time living within the New York arts scene of the 1980s, during the AIDS epidemic. The film tells the story of Jimmy (Rami Malek), an actor and performance artist who is dying of the disease. Tom Sturridge plays Dennis, Jimmy’s romantic partner and caretaker. Luther Ford plays their new neighbour Vincent, who has naively become romantically involved with Jimmy, against the wishes and advice of Dennis.
‘The Man I Love’ Is a Story of Passion and Creativity
Rather than focus on Jimmy’s disease, The Man I Love is a story of life and what makes it worth living. It’s about persevering through creativity and art, as well as the other pleasures in life. In many ways, it’s a hopeful story, as Jimmy continues to create and to passionately love. He clings to life with almost reckless abandon, as, knowing his time is short, he wants to make the most of it and leave nothing left unsaid or untried.
Jimmy’s primary pleasure is art. As he gathers with his performance art collective to produce an adaptation of a work by Québécois playwright Michel Tremblay, they talk, sing, reminisce, rehearse, play, and create. He invests his remaining time in this performance, working on his character, struggling with his scenes through bouts of memory loss and impatience when things go wrong on stage. He’s fully invested in the play, as he knows it’s likely to be his last grand performance, but treats it as seriously and as playfully as he would any performance he’s ever given as an artist.
‘The Man I Love’ Is a Portrait of a Time and Scene
The Man I Love is so focused on the pleasures of life, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that Jimmy is even sick. There is no typical wasting away or visible lesions, as seen in many other AIDS-centric stories. Instead, Rami Malek’s Jimmy is the life of the party and looks exactly as Rami Malek looks today. Talk of his illness precedes him, as the other characters discuss it when he’s out of the room, rather than the film showing Jimmy with any physical suffering on screen.
Jimmy is living rather than dying, but it’s those around him who are openly suffering. Dennis is sorting his pills and directs his anger at Vincent for his carelessness in carrying on with Jimmy in his state. Jimmy’s sister Brenda (Rebecca Hall) says how inspiring he is in his perseverance and how sad she is that it can’t possibly last. Her husband Gene (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is there for Brenda, serving as a shoulder to cry on. Jimmy himself has a few waning moments when he is overcome with emotion through song, or delivers an inappropriately timed confessional. Otherwise, his illness is hardly the direct focus of the film.
Because of the indirect aspect of showcasing Jimmy’s illness, The Man I Love acts more as a slice-of-life story about that era in the New York queer arts scene of the 1980s. It captures the time like a moving portrait, emanating its essence. Jimmy is the hook of the story, but it’s a true ensemble period piece.
Rami Malek Gives a Subtle and Tender Performance
Rami Malek’s performance is not towering, but rather tender. It’s an everyman portrayal of this larger-than-life character, focusing on Jimmy’s humanity rather than his illness. In some ways, the disease weighs more heavily on Dennis than on Jimmy, as the artist’s longing is focused on creating one last performance before his death. Tom Sturridge is sensitive and stoic as Dennis, always by Jimmy’s side, while also concerned for Vincent and his involvement in their lives. It’s as much his story as it is Jimmy’s or Vincent’s, as well as that of the entire collective.
A film about perseverance more than illness, The Man I Love shows the need for passion and creativity in a life worth living. A beautiful portrait, it’s not a film that warrants an immediate connection or payoff, but one that continues to resonate the longer it sits with you.
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The Man I Love
Directed by Ira Sachs
Starring Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge, Rebecca Hall, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Luther Ford, Sasha Lane, and Maisy Stella
Reviewed at TIFF 2026
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