Elizabeth Olsen is taking a break from the MCU to star on the small screen in HBO Max's (or Max, whatever) Love & Death. Olsen is set to play Candy Montgomery, the real-life housewife who murdered the wife of the man she was having an affair with. Even before her performance in WandaVision, Elizabeth Olsen has long remained a potent acting force in Hollywood. Prior to her joining the MCU, her performances in films like Silent House and particularly Martha Marcy May Marlene garnered serious buzz. However, one acting credit that may have slipped through the cracks for most people was Olsen’s turn as Leigh in a Facebook Watch series. As we gear up to watch Olsen play a sweet psycho, check out one of her brilliant earlier works: Sorry For Your Loss
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What Is 'Sorry For Your Loss' About?
The Facebook-owned service that briefly featured scripted content produced two seasons of the American drama series. Sorry For Your Loss revolves around Leigh (Olsen), as she navigates the ins and outs of dealing with the death of her husband (Mamoudou Athie). Olsen’s Leigh is a widow consumed by grief, who has left her job as an advice columnist in the wake of her husband Matt’s suicide and is struggling to move on. Living with her mother Amy (Janet McTeer) and sister Jules (Kelly Marie Tran), she starts work in the family business as a fitness instructor, going through all the motions.
There’s not much more to it that can be revealed without spoiling the show, not because there are any twists in a straightforward drama such as this, but because Sorry For Your Loss is more about the feeling of grief than anything else. Showrunner Kit Steinkellner is well aware that loss like this isn’t a fleeting linear plot point to get through, but a part of the overall character of a person for the rest of their life – a pain they carry with them, for as long as they live. The simple premise better highlights the emotion and humanity of the script and the characters on the page are all fully fleshed-out three-dimensional characters.
'Sorry For Your Loss' Has a Mystery Without Making It the Focus
Leigh’s grief makes her shortsighted in not seeing how Matt’s death has hurt others who aren’t her. Furthermore, it adds a central mystery to the heart of the show with there being some confusion (or reluctance to accept, depending on the character in the show) about whether Matt killed himself or died in a freak accident. It’s another layer of confusion that the series uses as a plot device to underline Matt’s issues as well as deepen our understanding of the characters of the series, with how they saw Matt. This is particularly interesting because Matt’s suicide comes as a surprise to people like Leigh, while his brother Danny (Jovan Adepo) seems shocked but also understands better that his brother was struggling with depression.
However, the series smartly decides to do away with the mystery element of Matt’s death and instead focuses solely on the aftermath. It’s the kind of decision a lesser series might not have made, rather trying to keep viewers coming back through the enigma of Matt and his death. But Sorry For Your Loss painstakingly explores the horror and trauma of such a situation, where whether he died by choice or not is just another confusing detail to the overall uncertainty and second-guessing that comes about in a case of suicide.
Danny and Leigh’s relationship becomes more and more complicated as the series goes on, as he becomes her closest confidante, he understands her pain better than anyone else. Subsequently, their relationship turns non-platonic which adds another layer to their messy relationship. There is a lot of guilt involved for both parties, with them feeling ashamed of their feelings for each other and whether they missed any signs that could have prevented Matt’s death. However, the series never lets this make the show soapy or melodramatic. Instead, the show constantly remains grounded in reality and full of deeply emphatic if not perfect characters.
'Sorry For Your Loss' Is a Perfect Blend of Comedy and Drama
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The show also does a fine job of straddling the line between dark comedy and drama. The series does away with classic tropes about the five stages of grief that we are familiar with to instead discuss the process of getting over something life-changing like loss as non-linear. Leigh stumbles, until the very end of the show, to overcome the hurt, to not miss Matt as much, or not feel bad when she doesn’t think of him for a minute. All this allows the series’ decision to pepper in some lighthearted moments, a welcome distraction. The series also doesn’t simply just fixate on the glum and dour, and instead, it focuses a lot of the energy on helping Leigh and her inner circle all move on in their own way, adding a hopefulness to the series, even as it doesn’t pull punches or make it look easy. The series manages to justify Matt’s decision and make him a deeply sympathetic character even as it examines the debris left behind in his wake.
Elizabeth Olsen Gives One of Her Best Performances to Date
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Sorry For Your Loss is a fantastic vehicle for Olsen, who earned a Critics Choice Awards nomination for her role, even as she was robbed of further recognition for her performance. But the two seasons remain stunning to see, even if solely to see the limitless capabilities of Elizabeth Olsen who exercises every acting muscle in her body.
Where the MCU largely kept her in perpetual sadness and had little idea of what to do with it until WandaVision. Her performance here is both physical and deeply internal, and she’s able to accomplish the mammoth task of relaying that to audiences with ease. Unlike the MCU's Wanda, who is a character that didn't get much screen time until fairly recently, the two seasons of Sorry For Your Loss allow Olsen to make the most out of a woman experiencing the worst kind of bereavement and depression. Olsen deserves serious credit for the heavy lifting she does, even outside her role as an actress and executive producer on the series.
From moments where the smallest reaction on her face gives away her inner turmoil, to the kind of doe-eyed facial expressions that would make the likes of Amy Adams proud, Olsen does a lot to bear her heart on her sleeve with this role. While WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness required a more overt performance, Leigh in Sorry For Your Loss requires a far more nuanced approach. It's the magnum opus of Olsen's career to date, for how precisely calibrated her acting is in this and is a must-see performance for her devotees.
'Love & Death' Will See Elizabeth Olsen Return to Form
It's also why the star's Max project Love & Death will be a return to form for the actress who can sink into the dramatic depths of the horrifying real-life story with a razor-sharp and emotional performance. The TV centers on the real-life case of Candy Montgomerywho was accused of murdering her best friend Betty Gore in 1980,and is written by Big Little Lies' David E. Kelley. With Jesse Plemons, Kristen Ritter, and Tom Pelphrey rounding out the cast, the drama series is set to be an exciting mix of acting talents. The real-life case and the cast will give Olsen a lot to bounce off of and if it's anything like her past performances, it's certain to bring in some major awards buzz. WandaVision’s surprise awards love helped her secure some Emmy and Golden Globe nods, and she may be all set to repeat that fate with Love & Death, but it is really with Sorry For Your Loss that Olsen truly arrived on the scene and established herself as the seasoned professional that she is.
