Love Is Strange **** (2014, John Lithgow, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei) – Movie Review

John Lithgow and Alfred Molina are inspired to give perhaps their best ever acting in co-writer-director Ira Sachs’s haunting and moving drama. Adorable, so sweet and subtle and touching, Love Is Strange really gets to you.

Lithgow and Molina are superb in graceful, understated performances as Ben and George who, after nearly four decades together, finally get married in an idyllic wedding ceremony in lower Manhattan.

Alas, it’s all downhill from there. George is fired from his teaching post and they have to sell their apartment, victims of the New York City real estate market, forcing them to stay with friends separately while they sell their place and look for cheaper housing, a tricky situation for one and all.

George moves in with the two cops (Cheyenne Jackson, Manny Perez) who live down stairs, while Ben lands up in Brooklyn with his nephew (Darren Burrows), his wife (Marisa Tomei) and their temperamental teenage son (Charlie Tahan), with whom Ben shares a bunk bed. 

I’ve no idea why it’s called Love Is Strange or what the ending means, but I really like that about it too.

On June 26 2015, President Obama hailed the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalising same-sex marriage across 50 states as ‘a victory for America’.

‘The speed with which public attitudes have shifted in favour of gay marriage has been dizzying,’ he said. But that ignores the legacy of the gay rights movement. Friday’s victory was also the result of millions of people who endured taunts and bullying, who came out to families and friends, and who marched for equality.’

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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