Love is Strange
- Director: Ira Sachs
- Writer: Ira Sachs; Mauricio Zacharias
- Producer: Steven M. Ballerini; Ali Betil
CGiii Comment
If ever a film under-used its two - mighty fine - leading actors...this is it!
Expectations were high...the result: a pitiful, bitter disappointment.
Love is Strange feels incomplete - with a disjointed, shifting focus...is it about an elderly gay couple facing hard times or, about a boy who deserved a hard time?
There are so many loose ends, leaps of faith, red herrings and bouts of implausibility...that when the 'surprise' comes, you won't be knocked unconscious, you'll be banging your head against the nearest wall in frustration...rather than spoil the ending - albeit rather predictable - an elongated edit finalises a strand of the story...it's blatantly cheap and wholly ineffectual.
Really, Mr Sachs? You [still] think this was acceptable? Not in your wildest dreams.
Molina and Lithgow must feel deflated - let down by (1) a weak supporting cast, the father...oh dear...(2) a script that was either pieced together from the shredder or mangled in the editing room and, most importantly, (3) directorial conceit.
What it could have been...is anyone's guess...what it shouldn't have been...is this!
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
After nearly four decades together, Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) finally tie the knot in an idyllic wedding ceremony in lower Manhattan. But when George loses his job soon after, the couple must sell their apartment and - victims of the relentless New York City real estate market - temporarily live apart until they can find an affordable new home. While George moves in with two cops (Cheyenne Jackson and Manny Perez) who live down stairs, Ben lands 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. While struggling with the pain of separation, Ben and George are further challenged by the intergenerational tensions and capricious family dynamics of their new living arrangements.
Cast & Characters
Marisa Tomei as Kate;
John Lithgow as Ben;
Alfred Molina as Jorge;
Cheyenne Jackson as Ted;
Charlie Tahan as Joey;
Darren E. Burrows as Elliot;
Christian Coulson as Ian;
Harriet Sansom Harris as Honey;
Adriane Lenox as Principal;
John Cullum as Father Raymond