All of Us Strangers
The narrative tightrope that writer/director Andrew Haigh (Weekend; 45 Years) walks in All of Us Strangers warrants circus-like applause, and yet the haunting atmosphere he crafts inspires something more along the lines of hushed awe.
Even in such talented hands, it would be incredibly easy for the work’s delicate premise to go awry, but the filmmaker balances it all with a tonal mastery that pulls in viewers and makes them believe in magic — or something wildly close to it.
Based on the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, Haigh’s emotionally rich drama follows lonely London screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) as he begins exploring his late parents through prose, then visits his childhood home to find none other than his mother (Claire Foy) and father (Jamie Bell) looking healthy and happy — just as they were the last time he saw them, 30 years prior, just before they died.
Artistic imagination, memory, sorrow, and the supernatural weave together in such a natural manner that it’s easier to accept what’s going on as fact than to suss out whatever metaphysical rules are at play, though all three seem keenly aware of the situation’s tenuous nature. While Haigh’s wizardry is certainly key to it working, the trio of Scott (in a career-best turn), Foy, and Bell excel together and in one-on-one permutations, yielding exchanges ranging from sweet to caustic, all of it tinged with a near universally relatable melancholy.
As Adam fills his folks in on his life as if communing and flat out physically being with the dead is an everyday occurrence, back at his apartment building he develops a charming romance with bad boy neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal, Aftersun). Two two men’s interactions likewise carry a waking-dream quality, one enhanced and blurred by drugs and alcohol. And while it’s lovely to witness our damaged guy experience sustained joy atop his “family reunion,” there’s something fishy about only two tenants living in a giant new urban housing structure, and a more literal — albeit still spiritual — interpretation of the title suggests fascinating possibilities that may or may not be true.
Gorgeously shot and soulfully acted, All of Us Strangers offers one of the more affecting cinematic meditations on grief in recent memory, if not ever. It’s also one of the rare films that makes enchanted viewers want to read the source novel to see how the story works on the page — one of the highest compliments that can be paid to a literary adaptation.
Grade: A-minus. Rated R. Now playing at Grail Moviehouse
(Photo: Searchlight Pictures)
