Love Is Strange is about an elderly couple who, after 40 years together, are forced to live separately – couch-surfing with family and friends – when a combination of life events suddenly leaves them homeless. We watch the protagonists navigate broken real estate and social housing systems (told they may be able to get help from the ‘Department for the Ageing’, Ben (John Lithgow) sarcastically replies, “They have a whole department just for us – isn’t that encouraging?”) as their increasingly strained relationship sustains them.
There are plenty of great romantic movies but few where the characters have already spent decades together, and it’s a delight to see the depth and weight of a lifelong love depicted so gracefully. Lithgow and Alfred Molina as George both give career-best performances; their words and gestures constantly suggest a history and affection that makes us care about their separation. The movie is gently good-humoured even in its sadness, and it shares this cranky generosity with its protagonists.
Ben and George are, of course, relatively privileged – down-on-their-luck, sure, but still middle class white men with family to support them. They’re spared the worst forms of homelessness. But this doesn’t make their lives easy, and the film’s focus on the ways good intentions can give way to little tensions and indignities is unsparing. I can’t think of another movie that conveys this aspect of family life so well – loving someone, wanting to help them, but feeling your frustrations slowly rising for reasons that are nobody’s fault.
I strongly recommend this movie to HAAG members, just make sure you have plenty of tissues handy. It shows us the real pain of older people’s homelessness beyond stereotypical images and assumptions.
Love Is Strange is currently available to watch for free on SBS On Demand. If you’re enjoying HAAG’s movie review column, please drop us a line and let us know what you think of the movies we’ve discussed, or what you’d like us to cover in future.