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Critics Consensus: Held aloft by remarkable performances from John Lithgow and Alfred Molina, Love Is Strange serves as a graceful tribute to the beauty of commitment in the face of adversity.
Critic Consensus: Held aloft by remarkable performances from John Lithgow and Alfred Molina, Love Is Strange serves as a graceful tribute to the beauty of commitment in the face of adversity.
All Critics (172) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (161) | Rotten (11) | DVD (1)
'Love is Strange' takes something so right and leaves it hanging all wrong.
"Love Is Strange" is a testament to love, not in an overly sentimental way, but in a realistic way.
"Love is Strange" boasts an abundance of patience and kindness - but not much of a pulse.
Sachs rarely overstates his themes. "Love Is Strange" is largely a restrained drama about the loss of comfort.
Love Is Strange is drab-looking and has its longueurs, but it's emotionally very full.
I can't say enough about how smart and clear-eyed it is. And moving: I'm wiping tears off my keyboard as I type this.
As dire as things become, there's an elegance to the way it all unfolds with cinematographer Christos Voudouris making New York feel as loosely comfortable as he made Greece appear in "Before Midnight".
Lithgow and Molina convey the body language of a longtime couple to such a degree that they effortlessly become part of the film's fabric.
This is Rent for the It's Complicated generation, a subtle, meandering movie about how one's life can slowly slide away.
... in subtle ways, Love Is Strange keeps pointing out the traces of homophobia that exist in large and small degrees in our supposedly "post-gay" culture.
The premise is vast but merely swirls around topics peripherally.
Ultimately, nothing in the story adds up to much.
A gay couple is forced to move into separate apartments when their marriage threatens the sensibilities of one's employer. An acting master class by John Lithgow and Alfred Molina with a fine supporting performance by Marissa Tomei highlight this softly moving story. The main conflicts are sometimes funny and sometimes quite dramatic and always genuine. Both main characters' loneliness figures prominently in the film's action, and its rendering is quite touching. While the film is "issue-driven," dealing with the injustices inflicted against gays and the affordability of real estate in Manhattan, it stays focused on the characters, which is its primary strength. Overall, Lithgow and Molina together create a gem.
Super Reviewer
A heartbreaking, inspiring and timely depiction of family, love and relationships in myriad forms. Understated but powerful performances, delivered with dignity and all the failings humankind is subject to, reflecting the often unforeseen human costs of injustice. A superb family drama. This film shows that love is not as strange as the the people who love -- or as beautiful.
American director Ira Sachs' work is clearly a movie made for devotees of reflective film and not mainstream box office. Sachs also co-produced and writes this account of disparate relationships. The fabricated arrangement gives way to some admittedly contrived situations manufactured in the interest of extracting a reaction. Alfred Molina and John Lithgow are extraordinarily good as the displaced couple. They lend a gravity to their characters that raise this chronicle to a higher level. Despite the narrative's handling of the hot button topic of same sex marriage, the real story exploits genuine emotion as it deals with the many-sided personalities in an extended family. This is a subtle production that has universal appeal. Whether they're singing at a piano to guests at a party or reflecting on what has become of their lives in separate bunk beds, Molina and Lithgow give nuanced performances. Yet the script accomplishes so much more. Love is Strange is a well written drama that beautifully handles the observational insights of a family tree and the way a simple crisis affects its many branches. fastfilmreviews.com
The performances were lovely, but this was just too slow for me. Move it along, people. Move it along.
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