Sunday, October 12, 2014

Love Is Strange (2014)

We liked a lot this story of long-time life partners Ben and George whose marriage results in George's getting fired from his job at a Catholic school and their losing their Manhattan apartment. John Lithgow and Alfred Molina shine under the direction of co-writer Ira Sachs (I missed his Independent Spirit Award nominated Keep the Lights On (2012) but very much liked Married Life (2007)), who wed his partner as soon as it became legal in New York in 2011. Mauricio Zacharias co-wrote Keep the Lights On and this, among others.

Lithgow (last blogged in The Campaign) and Molina (covered in An Education) give us sympathetic portrayals of older men set in their ways but determined to go with the flow under duress. Also under duress are Marisa Tomei's (most recently in Parental Guidance) Kate--a stay-at-home writer whose work is disturbed by her husband's uncle Ben living with them--and Charlie Tahan's (I've seen some of his movies but can't say that I recall him) Joey, a moody teenager. Jack recognized Darren Burrows, who plays Kate's husband/Joey's father Elliott, from his work on Northern Exposure.

No composer is listed but clips of the music, mostly classical, can be found on the amazon page. And with 33 producers, this one goes into my producers plethora category. The current leader The Butler, however, will be hard to beat with 39.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are in agreement with Jack and me, averaging 97% for this one. Do see this before it leaves town.

No comments:

Post a Comment