Current:Home > My'All of Us Strangers' movie review: A beautiful ghost story you won't soon forget-LoTradeCoin
'All of Us Strangers' movie review: A beautiful ghost story you won't soon forget
View Date:2024-12-24 07:10:41
What if you could have one more conversation with a lost loved one? What would you say? Would it help you move on or just entrench you more in the past?
Writer/director Andrew Haigh’s brilliant “All of Us Strangers” (★★★★ out of four; rated R; in select theaters now, nationwide Friday) is both lyrical fantasy romance and masterfully told ghost story. To call it haunting might be trite but also spot on: With a terrific performance from Andrew Scott as a queer screenwriter at a crossroads, “Strangers” is the sort of cinematic balm that not only touches your soul but takes up prime real estate.
Adam (Scott) lives an isolated life in his weirdly empty London high-rise apartment complex, noshing cookies on the couch rather than working. He decides to travel to his childhood home in the suburbs, a trip where he runs into his dad (Jamie Bell) and mom (Claire Foy). Mind you, they died in a 1987 holiday car accident just before Adam turned 12, but he finds them again – at around the same age he is now – full of questions for their now grown-up boy.
Adam visits often and engages in the heartfelt conversations they would have had if his parents lived. He comes out to his mom, who’s stuck in a 1980s mindset and worries about AIDS, and has an emotional and honest conversation with his father about childhood traumas that leave both of them in tears.
At the same time he’s opening up to them, Adam finds the creative juices flowing again and also begins a relationship with his downstairs neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal). At first, Harry shows up at Adam’s door with booze, with Adam rebuffing his advances (and almost immediately reconsidering), but he begins to lean on Harry for comfort, support and the occasional ketamine-fueled night out. But what throws Adam is when these two different relationship journeys begin to tie together and unravel in delirious fashion.
'All of Us Strangers':New film is a cathartic 'love letter' to queer people and their parents
Haigh, whose film is an adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s novel “Strangers,” fills the screen with warm, colorful textures, and many of the characters are seen in reflections, be it on a metro train or in a home, which adds to the film’s fanciful reverie. (It also uses Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "The Power of Love" to interesting narrative effect.) Adam and his mother even have a conversation about whether what they’re experiencing is real and how long it will last. “I don’t suppose we get to decide when it’s over,” she says, one of the film’s most touching lines.
“Strangers” isn’t the first to mine similar metaphysical ground – “Field of Dreams” did it magnificently as well, though this movie goes further in reconnecting a son with the mom and dad who suddenly weren’t in his life anymore. They ask Adam about the circumstances of their demise, and he’s extremely caring in those moments, though he's more open with Harry about how their deaths led to his solitude. The film tackles the way people relate to their parents, face loneliness, come to grips with their sexuality but also struggle with thinking that the future doesn’t matter.
Andrew Scott:From Hot Priest to ‘All of Us Strangers,’ actor is ready to ‘share more’ of himself
Scott is the perfect conduit for such a thoughtful exploration of feelings, and it’s a star-making role for an actor who should already be one after his deliciously demented Moriarty on TV’s “Sherlock” and delightful Hot Priest on “Fleabag.” As Adam, Scott captures the boyish glee and wonder of seeing his parents again around a Christmas tree yet also the panic and worry that only comes when you truly care for somebody.
While examining love, grief and the phantoms we carry with us, Haigh leaves much of his sweetly elegiac character study to a viewer’s interpretation. Everyone will read different things into what it really means from beginning to quietly stellar end, and in that sense, we might be “Strangers” but we’re all human.
veryGood! (4)
Related
- Oprah Winfrey denies being paid $1M for Kamala Harris rally: 'I was not paid a dime'
- Michigan toddler recovering after shooting himself at babysitter’s house, police say
- Scottie Scheffler won't be viewed as an Olympic hero, but his was a heroic performance
- Competing for two: Pregnant Olympians push the boundaries of possibility in Paris
- Jury awards Abu Ghraib detainees $42 million, holds contractor responsible
- Keep your cool: Experts on how to stay safe, avoid sunburns in record-high temps
- Slow Wheels of Policy Leave Low-Income Residents of Nashville Feeling Brunt of Warming Climate
- Financial markets around the globe are falling. Here’s what to know about how we got here
- What do nails have to say about your health? Experts answer your FAQs.
- Why RHONJ’s Season 14 Last Supper Proves the Current Cast Is Done for Good
Ranking
- Rita Ora pays tribute to Liam Payne at MTV Europe Music Awards: 'He brought so much joy'
- The internet's latest craze? Meet 'duck mom.'
- Cooler weather helps firefighters corral a third of massive California blaze
- Last Day to Shop the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale: Race Against the Clock to Shop the Top 45 Deals
- Mike Tyson employs two trainers who 'work like a dream team' as Jake Paul fight nears
- Zac Efron Breaks His Silence After Being Hospitalized for Swimming Incident in Ibiza
- Democratic primary in Arizona’s 3rd District still close, could be headed for recount
- Noah Lyles is now the world's fastest man. He was ready for this moment.
Recommendation
-
Olivia Culpo Celebrates Christian McCaffrey's NFL Comeback Alongside Mother-in-Law
-
Missouri police say one man has died and five others were injured in Kansas City shooting
-
Team pursuit next for US cyclist Kristen Faulkner: 'Want to walk away with two medals'
-
2024 Olympics: Anthony Ammirati and Jules Bouyer React After Going Viral for NSFW Reasons
-
Burger King is giving away a million Whoppers for $1: Here's how to get one
-
Olympics men's basketball quarterfinals set: USA faces Brazil, France plays Canada
-
1 child dead after gust of wind sends bounce house into the air
-
Wildfires rage in Oregon, Washington: Map the Pacific Northwest wildfires, evacuations