LOVE IS STRANGE

The only thing “strange” about this film is the title; profoundly realistic, poignantly, plaintively acted by John Lithgow and Alfred Molina; two men, after decades together “tie the knot”; instead of “happily ever after” sink precipitously into dependency, not to each other but family and friends. “Ben” (Lithgow) a painter of little distinction has relied on “George’s” (Molina) paycheck and insurance as a music teacher in a Catholic school, for support. With George’s dismissal, financial survival shrivels and the two are separated: Ben shuttled to his nephew “Elliot” (weird, undefined role, depicted by Darren E.Burrows) and his wife, “Kate” (seasoned, adroit characterization by Marisa Tomei) and their teenage, surly son “Joey” (Charlie Tahan); George, a misfit in the cacophonous home of two gay policeman.

Recognizable, is the trauma of separation; for forty years Ben and George have lived and loved as a unit; bravely they suffer the alienation of two domiciles; uncomfortable, they unintentionally cause havoc in their “temporary” residences; squatters, struggling with isolation, painfully yearning for the comfortable togetherness that informed their existence; their world is torn asunder, irreparably altered; Lithgow and Molina imbue the roles with immeasurable dignity; galvanizing in portraying a moving love story that is anything but “strange”.

FOUR STARS!!!!

Peneflix