This is a film that wasn’t really on my radar until a few weeks ago. I had seen little clips of it in the advertising for last years London Film Festival but I hadn’t read any reviews and hadn’t seen the trailer. When I did see the trailer in the cinema at the start of this year, it immediately jumped to being one of my most anticipated films. Everything about the trailer was spot on and made me immediately excited to see the film itself. Having now seen the film, I think it does live up to my initial expectations.
The film focuses on Adam, a screenwriter living in a nearly empty tower block in London, who is trying to write a film about his parents. When he goes back to his old home to get ideas, he encounters the ghosts of his parents, who died when he was a kid. As Adam keeps going back to see them, he starts gaining more of an understanding of them and a sense of closure. At the same time, Adam starts a relationship with Henry, probably the only other person living in the tower block, granting him a greater connection to the world. The main idea I appreciated in the film is its look at loneliness. We see how the impact of Adam’s parents deaths has resulting in him being afraid to open himself up, creating a self perpetuating cycle of Adam being afraid of being alone, but unwilling to open himself up to form connections with people. By interacting with his parents and with Henry, Adam starts to gain more of an understanding of the world and the people in them, in particular being able to see his parents as people and not an abstract ideal to him. It shows the importance of connecting and being willing to open up to people. It also demonstrates the importance of closure in relationships. Throughout the film, we know that Adam has something missing because he didn’t have the closure he needed with his parents, which is part of why he is so afraid of commitment and opening himself. We also see how attitudes have changed between Adam’s parents and Adam, mainly in terms of their treatment of sexuality and masculinity. We see how there is conflict between Adam and his parents over Adam being gay and not being the traditional idea of a man, with conversations between Adam and his dad highlighting how emotionally damaging it can be to not be comforted when you are in emotional distress and the fear of how it will affect you in the long run. It’s a really mature idea to have these conflicts, rather than presenting the relationship solely in a positive light.
The performances as well add to the power of the film. This is probably the best performance I’ve seen from Andrew Scott, who has shown himself to be an incredible talent over the past decade. His work here is filled with this vulnerable, heartbreaking sense of loneliness for most of the film, so that when we do see him open up and embrace relationships with others, it comes across as more emotionally resonant. Not many actors can present themselves as this emotionally vulnerable but Scott does an incredible job here. Paul Mescal as Henry meanwhile is more open, as compared to Scott, with the two of them having a really beautiful chemistry with each other, making the romance of the film stand out as this really tender side of the film, adding to the emotional weight of the film. Jamie Bell and Claire Foy as Adam’s parents are strong, both of them bringing across this sense of loss through not being able to truly know their son, with regrets over their actions being seen throughout, but at no point do you feel that they don’t love Adam. The relationship between Adam and his parents is a strong emotional core for the film, which makes the film as powerful as it is.
The technical side of the film is very impressive. The way music is used throughout the film is excellent, the needle drops doing a great job at conveying the story, showing the great ways existing music can be utilised, with the use of Always On My Mind and The Power of Love being particular highlights. The way the space of the film is used, highlighting the emptiness of the tower block is excellent. With the contrast between this and the more loud and vibrant scenes in clubs later on in the film doing an amazing job at showing the development of Adam through the visuals. The design of Adam’s old house as well has a lot of care put into it to make it feel lived in, but also having an element of nostalgia to it, reflecting how Adam’s memories are shaping the environment. There’s even some solid elements of surrealism present in the film, which helps give a different insight into Adam’s character and helps give the film more of an edge to it.
Overall, I found All of Us Strangers to be a really moving experience. It is a great look at identity and the nature of loneliness, anchored together by an incredible central performance from Andrew Scott. This is a proper tearjerker and I could see a lot of the audience in the cinema crying when I left the screening and those reactions were absolutely deserved.
My Rating: 4.5/5
Coogs Reviews 