Love Is Strange

The story concerns a couple who have lived together for four decades before suddenly deciding to get married. This is a decision that effects their life in more ways than they would have expected, mainly because they are gay.

Ben (John Lithgow) is a retired painter living on social security and George (Alfred Molina) is a music teacher in a Catholic school or at least he was. When the school finds out that he is now a married gay man as opposed to an unmarried one and with the accompanying Facebook postings to prove it, the bishop isn’t happy and they dismiss him.

The loss of George's income forces them to sell their Manhattan apartment and to find somewhere cheaper to live. The sale generates less funds than they expected and they end up asking for assistance from friends and family.

After a ‘friends and family’ meeting, which I’m sure only happens in America, the pair accept the offer of temporary lodgings but choose to live separately. They had the option to live together with a relative outside the city but, for some reason, they put staying in the city ahead of staying together.

The pair being forced to live apart is the basis of the story and the film explores how it affects them and the people they stay with. The fact they are gay matters little, a similar scenario could have been applied to a straight couple.

 

Ben moves in with the family of his nephew Elliott (Darren Burrows) and his writer wife (Marissa Tomei) where he shares a bunk bed with their teenage son Joey (Charlie Tahan). Which goes down about as well as you’d expect. George sleeps on the couch of their neighbours, a couple of NY cops, who are also gay and who live a hard partying lifestyle. Which also goes down about as well as you’d expect.

The two find it hard to adjust and clearly miss each, so again you wonder why they didn't try harder to stay together.

There are some interesting potential side stories such as Joey and his friend Vlad (Eric Tabach) and also Joey’s parents who seem very estranged but none of these are really progressed. Is the thing with Vlad, sexual, drug related or just confined to stealing books? Is Elliott cheating on his wife or is he really just working too much?

It’s a sweet and unassuming film, well-acted but probably way too unassuming for my liking and with an odd ending.