Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: John Lithgow, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei, Darren Burrows, Charlie Tahan, Christina Kirk, Tatyana Zbirovskaya, Olya Zueva, Jason Stuart, Harriet Harris, Cheyenne Jackson, Manny Perez, Jon Cullum, Eric Tabach, Tank Burt, Daphne Gaines, Christopher King, Maryann Urbano, David Bell, Henry Crouch, Dovie Lepore Currin, Jeff Goad, Sebastian La Cause, Christian Coulson, Andrew Polk, Michael J. Burg.
For a film such as Love Is Strange to come out at the Box office at the same time as an over-hyped, self obsessed and undemanding film such as 50 Shades of Grey could be seen as challenging at best, a sad indictment of the way that love and self satisfaction is regarded at worst. Yet, Love Is Strange surely is the true heavyweight of cinematic pictures to be released around a Valentine’s Day weekend in years.
No matter the politics of such films being released, Love Is Strange is ultimately a story that fills the heart with both sadness and great joy and it is down to the acting ability, the sheer depth of range that has encompassed both leading men’s time in cinema that makes it a more believable and artistically enjoyable film.
Ben and George are two men who have happened to finally married after 40 years together and in the comfort of their friends and families blessing the union is finally seen to be legalised and yet the authority that has been invested in that union is soon unravelled as George’s employers take a dim view of the fact that they are now husband and husband. It is a film about separation in the midst of chaos, of legalised abandonment by the state on two people who have done nothing wrong but get disposed of by one man’s dim view and the absurdity of a system that allows people to be homeless for having just lived their life.
For John Lithgow, a man never adversed to taking on roles that spark debate, and Alfred Molina, their portrayal of Ben and George is touching, beautifully balanced and tender. Throughout the film the truth in their relationship shines above anything that could catch the eye elsewhere, it is the genuine precision in the way that their lives have been shattered that makes it so heart-breaking and candid. The dialogue of the film is warm, full of fidelity to the cause, a cause that isn’t about the type of relationship but to showing the damage that outdated thinking can have on people’s lives when all they have done is be happy, the causes of homelessness are many and varied, but none more sickening when it has been almost state approved.
With terrific support from Marisa Tomei as Ben’s author niece-in-law and a well rounded acting display by Charlie Tahan as Ben’s great-nephew, the film shows the oppressive fall out felt on those that care for their friends and family but who, especially in big cities such as New York, due to absurdly high rates and punitive tax laws are those that also get punished; as living with someone you love may be all right but dealing with them every day living on your sofa is perhaps the hardest love to swallow.
The film won’t have the type of following that will be attached to a more hyped, arguably less noble, cinematic release but it will have more positive thought attached to it, more heart and genuine honesty and above all it a film with more sincerity of humanity’s failings and its uplifting redemption than any of its counterparts can muster.
Love is Strange indeed but it is also the truth of humanity’s basic desires.
Ian D. Hall