Tender look at human relationships
Print Edition
A gay couple who have been together for almost four decades are separated, at least physically, by factors beyond their control in “Love Is Strange,” the latest tender and meandering exploration of human relationships from indie darling Ira Sachs (“Keep the Lights On” and “Forty Shades of Blue”).
Set in the Big Apple, this is a sprawling yet intimate narrative, constructed almost entirely of in-between moments rather than the big turning points and tragedies. The starting point is the housing problem of two newlyweds but longtime lovers, played with enormous generosity by Alfred Molina and John Lithgow, but the film slowly expands its vision to encompass a much larger cast that includes Marisa Tomei and Cheyenne Jackson.
“Love Is Strange” opens on what should be the happiest day in the lives of Ben (Lithgow) and George (Molina), as they get ready for their wedding. But it’s not. The vows are dispatched in a scene under a minute long, and the marriage celebration takes place in their apartment. It feels like a regular party.
When news of the marriage reaches the ears of the New York archdiocese, George, who’s a Catholic school music teacher, is fired, and the couple is forced to sell their apartment. When finding new lodgings takes longer than anticipated, they ask their friends for a roof over their head, resulting in the separation of the two.
Sachs and co-writer Mauricio Zacharias get the familiar humor and half-evoked memories typical of long-term relationships exactly right.
A short scene in a historic gay bar is not only funny and real, but also reveals some of the core values that have kept this couple going for all these years. That said, the rather strange living arrangements of the two, divorced physically if never emotionally, is one of a number of elements that has to be accepted for the film to work.
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