Film review: Love Is Strange - on the minutiae of a gay relationship
This wonderfully warm, wise - and restrained - take on a topical issue by director Andrew Sachs is helped by its stars - two of the best character actors of their generation, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina
a time when gay-themed films were mostly about the angst of coming out or facing homophobia, Ira Sachs' excellent drama Love is Strange might be the tipping point towards a more enlightened direction.
Continuing the recent — and very welcome — trend in crafting stories for more mature audiences, this tells of Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina), a long-term same-sex couple living in Manhattan. They've been together for years. Their families all know they're gay. And their sexuality is largely a non-issue.
True, the film begins after George loses his job as a music teacher at a Catholic school, when word reaches the archdiocese that he and the retired artist Ben have wed after 39 years together. But while this is a brief dig at Catholicism's attitude to gay marriage, it's largely used as a springboard by Sachs and fellow screenwriter Mauricio Zacharias.
As the title suggests, Love is Strange is really about the minutiae of relationships — right down to the complex financial arrangements that underpin any coupling. With George out of work, the pair can no longer afford to keep their New York apartment. Others want to help, but no arrangement quite works.