“Miss You, Love You” — a feature written and directed by Jim Rash (auteur of “The Way, Way Back,” and also the comedic genius behind Dean Pelton on “Community”) that premiered at Sundance earlier this year and debuts on HBO this week — is technically a movie, but it’s the type that feels like a play. Most of the scenes play out between just two characters, grieving widow Diane (Allison Janney) and beleaguered assistant Jamie (Andrew Rannells), in one location: Diane’s New Mexico home, nestled amid a Georgia O’Keeffe-esque desert landscape. “Miss You, Love You” is a small film in scope, hence the bypassing of theaters for distribution on TV, but not in emotional payoff, as Diane and Jamie wrestle with a complex brew of resentment, recognition and, finally, forgiveness.
Though “Miss You, Love You” is a two-hander powered by Janney’s acerbic delivery and Rannells’ wounded vulnerability, there’s a third figure who looms unseen over the action: Tyler, Diane’s son and Jamie’s employer. An Anderson Cooper-like, globe-trotting journalist, Tyler has dispatched Jamie in his stead to look after Diane in the run-up to her husband (and Tyler’s stepfather) Henry’s funeral. The substitution is both rude to Diane, who could use her only child for emotional support in a time of profound loss, and unfair to Jamie, who’s been assigned a job that goes above and beyond the work of booking flights or making appointments.
