Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) have been together for 39 years. George works as a music teacher in a Catholic high school and Ben is a painter, but we don’t even know any of this before we get to see them exchange vows during their wedding ceremony. Perhaps it’s watching these two unconventional protagonists so happy what draws us to them? Perhaps the notion that happiness and joy, regardless of sexual orientation, should be what unite us as human beings is the main idea director Ira Sachs is trying to convey in Love is Strange? But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves...for immediately after the wedding, George is fired from his job forcing him and Ben to move out and stay with relatives and friends until they are able to find an apartment they can afford.
While almost everything seems to suggest the film is meant for nothing but contrivances and moral lessons, there is a naturalistic beauty in Mr. Sachs’ films that bypasses all sorts of didacticism and truly punches you right in the gut. His loving observations on his characters suggest that he might very well be a modern day Ozu or Rohmer, he allows his camera to rest on the most unexpected people and places; a sun drenched living room here, a smiling stranger there. All to convey a sense of beauty that transcends preciousness and instead invites us to be more in tune with our surroundings; show kindness to others, he says, without ever denying that life does tend to give turns for the worst every now and then.
The screenplay (by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias) allows its characters to breathe and only peels off their layers naturally, making them seem like people we might just as well know in real life. Lithgow’s Ben is tremulous, wary and seems possessed of such a sensitivity that we can’t help but wonder how he and George met and fell in love. There are several moments when the film makes us wish we could pause it, and ask the characters questions because their inner lives seem so rich. The film also features terrific supporting performances from Cheyenne Jackson and the extraordinary Marisa Tomei as Ben’s nephew’s wife.
While Mr. Sachs could’ve easily made a film about gay marriage that served the purpose of teaching the audience lessons, he has instead crafted one of the loveliest, most bittersweet romances put onscreen in recent years. This love will only seem strange because the movies have rarely captured it with such tenderness.
