Separation trial

Love Is Strange

Crit

I found myself using the word "underwhelmed" when relating my reaction to this, and upon review, I stand by that adjective, with the stipulation that I use it in a much more positive sense than I usually would. What I mean is that, once the diocesan shit hits the fan and George (Alfred Molina) is sacked from his Catholic school teaching job for marrying his long, long, longtime lover Ben (John Lithgow), everything that ensues is less catastrophic than inevitably ordinary: a home lost, enforced separation while staying with family and friends, the tensions that arise from that circumstance. I guess I was expecting car chases and menacing meteors, but no: it's just decent people being fucked with by an inhumane and hypocritical hierarchy. Like always.

Footnote: does Charlie Tahan, who plays Ben's nephew Joey, look like a younger Steve Zahn or what?