All of Us Strangers Review – Courageous Gay Drama Pushes the Envelope

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Wednesday, 21 February 2024 09:25

Written by Janet Walker

All of Us Strangers, from Searchlight Pictures, brings to the screen a brave and bold gay drama as an adult orphan tries to make peace with his past, while trying to move forward in a lonely world.

The film begins in a London apartment. A writer, Adam, played by Andrew Scott, sits at his desk attempting to add words to the page. A struggling writer, he sits and stares out the window seeking a moment of inspiration. The hours pass. Suddenly there is a fire alarm, and as a good citizen, he leaves his building, and makes his way to the few other neighbors who have grouped outside waiting for an all-clear signal.

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While he is outside, he looks up at the high rise sees a man, who didn't think it was necessary to leave the building. The residents receive the all clear and when Adam returns to his apartment, the man, Harry, played by Paul Mescal, knocks on the door.

We find out Harry is gay, and he is looking to hook up and he's very forward and up front. He explains, a bit bizarrely, that he felt a connection between them as Adam was outside and he, watching him from 30 floors up, but the connection was real, didn't you feel it. Once established they are both gay, and apparently the only gays in the building, the hook up seems inevitable.

Adam, who personifies a lonely soul, is riding the train. The transition, of course, is the train; he is going back to a place, when don't quite understand where he is going. He has a picture of a house and when he arrives on the street, he looks in the window and sees a young boy, played by Carter John Grout.

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This is where the film transitions, as our writer Adam is trying to come to grips with his past. We don't know at the time that the young boy represents himself, but he goes over to this field and what I'm assuming this vastness of the field is supposed to be indicative of a time as the aspect of the scene is filled with metaphors for time and time travel.

This is where he meets the man, Dad, played by Tom Holland and he acts very friendly as if they know each other. There's something off about the man's appearance like he hasn't modernized. And when they get to the house, he meets his Mum, played by Claire Foy, who is also a bit off in her dress. You can see it is obvious that they are both extremely happy to see him, we don't know yet if there was an estrangement or a severance because of his sexual orientation or lifestyle choices.

What we see is someone who can finally speak to his parents about his life. No filters, no lies. These visits to his childhood home repeat several times, even after his mum asks him why he isn't married, and he explains. Her response is odd, as if she has been in a vacuum for the last thirty years and has not had any exposure to the advancement of gay rights.

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So they go to dinner, and they go out for dinner at the local mall, and Adam orders a huge meal, this huge meal, and the waitress, played by Ami Tredrea, explains that it's a meal for three. Suddenly, his dad asks, "was it fast, you know, I mean for us was it fast?" And when his mum explains, "I told him not to ask that I wasn't going to ask that but and for me too was it fast." That is when the audience realizes he is having conversations with his dead parents, as he tries to process, still, the sudden loss of his parents which left him an orphan.

How he returns to London and visits Harry, who has died from an overdose, and the pattern of a life ripped away again causes him to revert to the mental place to share a last moment.

Essentially the film is about processing loss through communication therapy and psychologically verbal communication is supposed to be a strength, essentially having conversation with loved ones or others. And one can't fault the screenwriter for the story of trying to have one more moment, one more conversation with a lost loved one.

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All of Us Strangers pushes the envelope, especially during the gay seduction scenes and the introduction of necrophilia. While the film is well directed and clearly the ensemble cast embody their characters, I felt the seduction scene was excessive.

I have seen this often recently, as filmmakers are refusing to allow the imagination of the audience to be of use. I believe the play by play is over the top and offends the audience, as directors who employ this technique refuse to allow their audience to be a part of the journey, which I feel happened in All of Us Strangers.

For some All of Us Strangers, pushes the envelope in gay dramatic filmmaking and for others it could be seen as an indictment against the gay lifestyle, as the excessive use of drugs, alcohol, coupled with clear mental and emotional problems and the introduction of necrophilia, all portray the man as more than simply unstable, and his same sex attraction is an offshoot of his mental illness.

All of Us Strangers has received 100 nominations and earned 22 awards. The film has been nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards including Best Feature, Best Lead Performance and Best Director.

Bold and courageous, All of Us Strangers is controversial. See it and decide.

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Country: UK.

Language: English.

Runtime: 105 minutes.

Director: Andrew Haigh.

Producer: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Sarah Harvey, Jeremy Campbell (co-producer).

Executive Producer: Daniel Battsek, Farhana Bhula, Ben Knight, Ollie Madden, Diarmuid McKeown.

Writer: Andrew Haigh, Taichi Yamada (novel).

Cast: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy, Carter John Grout, Ami Tredrea.