Irreplaceable You (2018)
A story about love, loss, and life.
Currently, I’m helping a friend write a screenplay. It’s a rom-com, which is way outside of my normal film repertoire, which means that I’ve been watching a lot of romantic movies to learn the genre. I’ve been viewing films that are serious, not so serious, good, not so good, and everywhere in between. Because the crux of the plot that we’re crafting has to do with an interracial couple, I’ve been trying to locate movies that focus on that same dynamic, which is how I found Irreplaceable You.
This incredibly flawed film centers on a woman’s search for a girlfriend for her fiance after she is diagnosed with cancer. Her husband is clueless when it comes to dating, in addition to some basic things that come along with adulting, so her concern is understandable, though incredibly misguided.
While I wasn’t particularly interested in the romantic element of the plot line, I was fascinated by the character of Abbie, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. This film provided a brilliant look into the grieving process. Instead of taking the time to mourn for her life and prepare for her death, she needed a distraction so she created one for herself. She needed something to do other than chemo treatments and cancer group and feeling terrible.
While watching, I couldn’t help but empathize with her. And I wondered what I would do if in her same position. Honestly, I would like to think that I would grieve well and fight well, but I would probably end up finding something that I could control instead. I would probably push the people closest to me away in some weird way for a variety of misguided reasons.
This film made me think about grief and death and loss, which are not the most cheery of topics, but ones that I think are worth ruminating on. We all experience loss in different ways throughout the course of our lives, but we rarely take the time to mourn those losses. Instead, we just move on and try to pretend they never happened or we try to control something or someone to make us feel better. Irreplaceable You is an invitation to grieve with this couple and watch the process as she fights for her life and he fights for their relationship.
You can check out Irreplaceable You, currently on Netflix.
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