Love story elicits tears and raises questions

You might think the HBO movie, tonight at 8, is too much of a tear-jerker — and it certainly doesn’t avoid emotional prodding, including a tinkling piano on the soundtrack to heighten the sweetness. We watch moving wedding-rehearsal scenes of Monica and David being coached by their parents, awkwardly trying to fit rings on their fingers; we see Monica looking so vulnerable at her gown-fitting, trying to walk in fancy shoes while Monica’s mother talks about how her daughter is “the light of my life.’’ We watch their wedding unfold like a gauzy dream, as David’s mother dances like a proud mama bear with her arms wrapped around her son.

Reader, I cried.

In one devastating scene later in the movie, Monica writes a letter on lined notebook paper to her father, with whom she hasn’t had contact in years. “You never call me at my birthday. You always make me cry. . . . I don’t like you no more. You broke my heart. Love, your daughter, Monica.’’ At the kitchen table, Monica is sad, until David gets up in her face and pulls a smile out of her.

But what makes director Alexandra Codina’s “Monica & David’’ so much more than an affecting sentimental journey is the question mark that hangs over everything we see. While the joy in the church is palpable, while the love that Monica and David’s family feels for them is fierce and powerful, the future gnaws. What will happen next for the newlyweds, whose intellectual disability prevents them from true independence? In their 30s, they’re not equipped to live alone or get jobs, and they depend on the devoted and willing care of Monica’s mother and stepfather. In one scene, Monica and David hold a baby, wondering about whether they will ever become parents. We can feel the impossibility of the situation, and the fragility of their hopes.