Review - All Of Us Strangers
Directed by: Andrew Haigh
Written by: Andrew Haigh
Starring: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy
Running Time: 105 minutes
Rating: 3/5
We have all wanted to say things to our closest relationships, but for a myriad of reasons we can’t. Sometimes the subjects are too sensitive and could spur fights and tension. Or even simply, that person is no longer around, be it socially, or they have passed on. I for one have on many occasions rehearsed what I would like to say, free of any reprisals or interruptions. Or even played with what I wished I could’ve said given the hindsight.
Andrew Haigh’s latest film follows an emotionally isolated screenwriter Adam, who on a chance encounter meets a neighbor Harry in his sparsely occupied apartment building. They begin and a new and intense romance, giving Adam human connection he hasn’t felt in many years.
In his creative life, he is attempting to start a new script about his parents who died over 30 years ago in a car accident. Upon revisiting his childhood home he discovers a way to meet them and talk to them before the accident has occurred. It’s not time travel, it’s not the afterlife. But Adam’s growing obsession with interacting with these spectors or ghosts, puts his current relationship with Harry in jeopardy.
All of Us Strangers is a very elliptical film that is very emotionally engaging that has some wonderful performances from its whole cast. Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal have electrifying chemistry of a budding relationship with very different emotional dynamics.
The more fantastical elements of the film with his ghost-esque parents, played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell, are played with little to no genre pomp or circumstance. They are very real to Adam, but not something regulated by rules or magical impediments.
Overall the film has its heart in the right place, it’s giving all the performers interesting scenes to play. And is a welcomed change of pace for Andrew Scott, who I know primarily from Sherlock being a hyper functioning villain. In this, his cautious and guarded demeanor gives him a showcase to be very deeply human and is able to dramatize his interior life without being cloying or pretentious. He has a lot to work with and never has a dishonest moment.
Paul Mescal wowed audiences last year with his breakthrough role in ‘After Sun’. Here is playing a similar role of an emotionally opaque love interest. This film along with ‘Foe’ complete a loose trilogy of sort,s where he is playing a complex withdrawn cypher of a character to the lead who are desperate to figure him out.
I did like the journey this movie put me on, about getting a second chance to say thing things you’ve always wanted to say. For me there was a certain lack of dramatic tension in the scenes with his parents that put me at a certain distance. The conversations they have are full of longing and importance, in that he is able to come out to them, something he was never able to do as kid.
As the film draws to a close, we are given certain plot reveals that make us rethink aspects of our lead, but also of the relationships he holds. And while the film is aiming to be have it be an emotional revelation, it can feel a little repetitive thematically. To the point it made me question as to what moments in this film actually happened or what is just a fantasy.
It is a very human and kind story. But in the end leans too hard on a metaphorical twist rather than a dramatic one. That showcases that the movie is more of an experimental drama, that may lack specificity to tell a complete story. I will say that could be the point, that it might be about a withdrawn person who only feels safe in creating scenarios that he controls what people say and do. I think this film is absolutely worth seeing for the performances, but in someways its dramatic conceit may be undercutting its impact.
