The Facts:
Synopsis: As a screenwriter drawn back to his childhood home enters a fledgling relationship with a mysterious neighbor, he discovers his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died 30 years before.
Stars: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy
Director: Andrew Haigh
Rated: R
Running Length: 105 minutes
TMMM Score: (10/10)
Review: My father passed away in 2009, and I was fortunate enough to have time to say goodbye to him. While no amount of time is ever “enough” to say farewell to such an important figure, I was glad to know that we talked about many topics and that nothing felt unsaid when he died. As we approach the 15th anniversary of his passing, I reflect on the life events over the years and wish he could see how I’ve changed. I realize this is not that uncommon of a feeling. To want to have the opportunity to talk to a loved one who is gone and catch them up on where life has taken you and what they’ve missed is natural, but how would your life be different if that occasion presented itself?
That scenario is just part of the equation writer/director Andrew Haigh designed in his new film All of Us Strangers. It is a beautifully introspective look inside processing grief and accepting fate for all its cruel twists and wonderous turns. Part modern romance and part family drama, it’s a full-on five-hanky weepie. It may center on a gay man reconnecting with his vulnerable heart, but it’s an ambitiously universal story that deftly moves across community borders to embrace all walks of life.
Based on the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, which was previously adapted into the 1988 Japanese film The Discarnates, Haigh’s adaptation removes horror elements from the source novel and earlier interpretation. Instead, it focuses on the human thread introduced by Yamada. This personalization of theme helps Haigh (the creator of 2011’s Weekend and the HBO show Looking) recalibrate his screenplay into a film that flirts with the supernatural and fantasy but largely stays grounded in the real world. That provides room for the emotions of the piece to be strengthened and paves the way to more fertile moments of surprise and discovery alongside our lead character.
Adam (Andrew Scott, 1917) is a screenwriter living in London struggling to begin his latest screenplay. Spending nights alone in his high-rise apartment while searching for inspiration, a middle-of-the-night fire alarm brings him outside where he notices Harry (Paul Mescal, Carmen) staring down at him. When Harry knocks on his door later and suggests the two lonely souls keep one another company, Adam dismisses Harry’s advances as drunken flirting that will come with too much baggage. Perhaps in another life, Adam would have willingly let Harry in, but he’s too guarded to let his feelings take over. Eventually, after another run-in, Harry is too tempting for Adam to resist, and they start an intimate relationship that Adam approaches with caution.
As he begins to write his screenplay, memories of his parents stir, and Adam travels to his childhood home on the outskirts of London. When he’s nearly there, he runs into his father (Jamie Bell, Surrounded), who walks him back home to be greeted by his mother (Claire Foy, First Man). It is an odd occurrence because both were killed in a car accident when he was twelve. Yet these ghosts are startlingly real, unaware of their demise, and eager to see their son and learn more about his life. Through further meetings with his parents, Adam can have frank discussions about his life, his loves, his disappointments, and the fear that ultimately is keeping him from being able to move on fully and into a relationship with Harry.
I can’t imagine anyone who has lost a parent who won’t have some strong reaction to All of Us Strangers. Scenes such as the one where Adam reveals his sexuality to his mother hit particularly hard if you are LGBTQ+ but could easily apply to anyone who has had to have a frank conversation with their parents. As much as we may try to act like adults and say the opinions of our parents don’t matter, not having their approval stings. Haigh’s screenplay captures several of these raw exchanges with an authenticity so potent that you feel like you are sitting in the same room as the characters.
Already building a strong career flying just under the radar in various genres, Scott is superb as Adam. He’s been broken and doesn’t know how to fix himself, and his encounters with Harry and his parents become building blocks for putting his life back together. Though they have a twenty-year age gap, Scott and Mescal find an undeniable chemistry as two men drawn to one another by some force of nature. Scott and Mescal are actors who consistently challenge themselves, and while playing gay men shouldn’t be classified as “risky,” there can be a turning tide against male actors in these roles. Thankfully, both share a comfort onscreen that makes their more intimate moments appropriately passionate and believably complex.
I’m not sure if I ever would have put Bell and Foy together as a married couple that produced Scott as their son, but Haigh’s magic works in this instance to make the viewer believe this trio was indeed a family. When they are all seated around a dinner table, you start to see little traits in each that tell you they are related. Bell and Foy are actors in touch with deep sensitivity, the kind of delicate emotion the roles call for, and Foy (who I think can be overpraised) is thunderously good. All four actors deliver top-tier work in All of Us Strangers, coupled with Haigh’s direction of his intricate screenplay; the result is a satisfyingly heartbreaking motion picture. It’s one of the absolute best movies of the year.
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