Review: Love Is Strange a beautifully acted gay love story

REVIEW: Love is Strange could have been heavy-going, but this intelligently crafted, beautifully acted light drama about gay marriage works wonders.

Love is Strange (M)

Director : Ira Sachs (Keep the Lights On)

Starring : John Lithgow, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei.

Rating : **1/2

How to keep it together when you can’t be together?

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Love can indeed be strange. But friendships can be even stranger.

Particularly when your love for one person puts all your other friendships to the test.

If all of the above makes Love is Strange sound like heavy going, let me assure you this intelligently crafted, beautifully acted light drama is anything but a drag.

Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina) have been together for 40 years, but have only just tied the knot.

The film begins at their wedding ceremony in New York, surrounded by a close inner circle of friends and relatives who all put their unyielding admiration for the happy couple on the record.

However, when news of the marriage gets out, George is brusquely dismissed from his well-paid job as a music instructor at a conservative prep school.

With no visible means of income on the horizon - Ben is a retired painter already in his seventies - the newlyweds rapidly fall on hard times. They have no choice but to throw themselves on the mercy of their lifelong friends.

As a result, Ben and George must live apart for the first time since they were relatively young men.

Ben has to share a room with the surly teenage son of his career-obsessed nephew and his wife (Maris Tomei). George moves in with his former neighbours, two gay cops who seem to be hosting house parties most nights of the week.

Domiciled with hosts who may not be as welcoming as hoped, Ben and George struggle with their new status as virtual welfare cases.

Their transition from being held up on a pedestal by one and all to almost being viewed with pity by the very same people is masterfully handled by Lithgow and Molina here.

The same applies to an astute, restrained and unyielding truthful screenplay, which culminates in one of the better final scenes you’ll see all year.

*** for more reviews, news and updates, follow Leigh Paatsch on Twitter at @leighpaatsch and on Instagram at leighpaatsch ***

Originally published as Review: Love Is Strange a beautifully acted gay love story