Love Is Strange (2014)
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Love Is Strange Movie Review
Love Is Strange is a 2014 independent romantic drama film directed by Ira Sachs and starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina. It’s a very moving film.
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“When you live with people,
you know them better than you care to“
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Ben Hull and George Garea have been lovers for many years. After they tie the knot, George loses his job and they are compelled to live separately with relatives until they find a cheaper house. This is a very understated indie for better and for worse. It’s the type of movie that is all about smaller moments, which worked as life also operates like that – there are usually no emotional outbursts and big speeches in life, but smaller, heartwarming moments that matter most, and Ira Sachs managed to capture that wonderfully.
My issue here is that by focusing so extensively on the couple’s surrounding relatives and friends, the movie lost the two of them a bit in the process. There is a moment where the two hug that was quite moving. There is another scene where they sleep together that was also quite powerful. And there is a delightful scene at the bar that was lightly comedic and romantic.
But those few scenes are too sporadically incorporated, meaning that the vast majority of the movie is not about these two at all. Having in mind that the two are split up due to horrendous circumstances, a better storytelling choice would have been to fill us in on their history through flashbacks, but the writer-director instead decided to focus on their relatives.
And that did lead to some wonderful moments between Ben played by Lithgow and his nephew. The final sequence focusing on the teenager was so touching and actually a fantastic way to end the movie. But all the others were underdeveloped, forgettable and not particularly meaningful to the story at hand, so I would have cut their screen time significantly.
Love Is Strange offered us the best performances in the leading actors’ careers. Yes, both of these gentlemen were incredible here. Alfred Molina played the more introspective partner of the two, but through his eyes alone we could see many emotions playing out. He delivered a wonderful performance indeed. As for John Lithgow, he was also fantastic, entirely believable and particularly strong at delivering emotional dialogue.
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Ira Sachs directed the movie with a lot of heart and care, but again it needed a better structure, more energy in its execution and more conviction. It felt too episodic and light in some of its sequences, but it is at the end of the day quite a deep, powerful movie about long-lasting love and the travails of growing old. It’s badly paced, but it’s very well written.
Love Is Strange is a very slow, introspective and understated indie drama for better and for worse. More flashbacks and less screen time devoted to the couple’s relatives would have been preferable, but still the ending was quite moving, the main romance was very powerful and it has numerous small moments of warmth that are very effective. Above all else, the movie gave us career-best turns from both John Lithgow and Alfred Molina.
My Rating – 4
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