Loving

Loving Review

Jeff Nicolas newest film centres around the true story of Richard and Mildred Richard, the couple that fought the supreme court to legalize interracial marriage. On the surface this story seems interesting but over done but the way Jeff Nicolas tells this story makes it incredibly unique. Instead of focusing on the big story about Civil Rights Nicolas focuses on the very personal story of Richard and Mildred. By bringing the story down to a very personal scale Nicolas told the story in a far more impacting and effective way. This movie isn't about a revolution or a grand battle this is truly a movie about two people being in love. The movie doesn't try to rant or preach it just tries to tell a human story. Ruth Negga shone in this movie. She gave an honest, and emotional performance that really made Mildred seem like a person instead of just a character. Acting against her or more accurately with her is Joel Egerton. The character of Richard is fall less emotional so therefor Joel has less opportunities to show off, instead Joel utilized the quiet moments with his character to give a strong performance. Together the pair creates a believable, balanced relationship that shows us they're in love instead of just telling us. The accents at first are distracting and can be hard to understand but as the movie continues the audience becomes more immersed in the world and it feels natural. The major issue with the movie is its repetition. Due to the nature of the story the movie hits similar points multiple times, by condensing the events the movie could have been more efficient.The movies greatest strength is it's characters. The characters never feel like roles in a movie, instead they feel like actual people. The movie shows us small yet very personal moments between the characters that really make them come to life. From simple glances to quiet laughs you really believe that these are humans with thoughts, feelings and emotion. Tis makes the audience care much more about their story and therefore become more invested in the movie. The soundtrack much like the movie is quiet yet effective. It gives the film a very distinct optimism to it. The camera work is gorgeous. It's ability to focus on details then go to sweeping landscape shots is very impressive.

Unfortunately, I think the movie itself just doesn't work and isn't overly interesting. I can appreciate a slow movie, as long as it builds to something worthwhile. With Loving, it's slow and there's no overarching momentum. There's no fluidity. It just inches along through a collection of scenes. And these scenes end up being incredibly repetitive. Not only do we see the characters doing a lot of the same things they were doing before, but a lot of information is repeated over and over. Scenes happen that give us no new information, or repeat what we learned from an earlier scene. It's not just that some scenes needed to be cut, the entire film needed to be restructured. As it stands right now, there's no connective tissue making this a cohesive film. It's just scene after scene. And yes, there is an endgame, but it's glossed over and trivialized in the scheme of the entirety of the movie. There was just nothing captivating about this movie, nothing really reeling me in...

'Loving' was outstanding. I know I review a lot of films that star a person people I love, but this film was one of the best ones I saw this year (Moonlight. GO SEE IT). I hesitated even writing that, thinking it couldn't be true, but it was. I was emotionally vested, riveted and compelled by it. Jeff Nichols' did a beautiful job directing this film in its fantastic simplicity, allowing Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton to deliver stellar performances as Mildred & Richard Loving. Joel Edgerton specifically stood out to me as I was a fan of his since King Arthur with Clive Owen (love Clive to death, but it was bad) and I absolutely love seeing him on film. He was remarkable as Richard Loving, communicating so much with his eyes and body language, I think it was a role that challenged him and I appreciate the impeccable job he did. Equally talented, Ruth Negga was also outstanding as Mildred Loving. She communicated so much just through her eyes! She is a very talented young woman who will have one outstanding career ahead of her. Marton Csokas and Michael Shannon make short but memorable appearances, honesty though both men are superbly talented so it's a real treat to have them pop up in smaller roles. Fun fact: Jeff Nichols directed Michael Shannon in another film I really liked, "Take Shelter".

This film is about two people in love, an understated but very deep love which altered the very course of American history. 'Loving' begins in the late 1950s, right when racial tension was at its highest, just as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum. Compounded by this and social pressures from within their community, the Lovings were forced to live in fear and even meet under cover of night. No one should have to live like this, ever. Nichols did a wonderful job of illustrating just how much this impacted their lives. How this couple, who only wanted to have a family and be together in peace, lived in a persistent state of paranoia fearing violence or worse just because they loved each other. It really is beyond all comprehension, that a black woman and a white male would be violating law simply being married. That tune sounds very familiar doesn't it, when likened to present day? All those lovely gay couples who can't hold hands just because they are scared that you are unable to mind your own damn business. Such a shame.

'Loving' is also about hope. The beautiful glory of hope and love. Even despite everything, all the adversity and hardship there is always hope. That was one thing I really took away from the film. When asked how she is able to keep fighting, Mildred Loving, played by the wonderful Ruth Negga, says: Well, you loose the small battles to win the big war." This film is also about freedom, liberty and rights. This is the land of the free after all, but only free if you're not black, or gay, or anything not considered the status quo. The Lovings fought for years tooth and nail for the right to be able to love each other and raise a family the poignant part of this film to me is the ridiculous fact that they had to endure years of crap for something they should've had all along.

Overall the film was just wonderful, I was moved and felt it in a very real way. The story is palpable from many perspectives which I think was a pretty challenging feat for Nichols accomplish, but he did so with efficacy. The narrative is clear: Love is love, live and let live. I say go see it, fall in love and carry it with you.

I'm very conflicted on how I feel about this. On one hand, I very much appreciated just how restrained and quiet this film turned out to be. It could have easily turned into a completely sentimental, over-saturated melodrama in the vein of The Help and it didn't. However, I also feel like it could have been more effective than it was. It also very much felt like Nichols was kind of on stand-by. I'm not sure if it was the mix of the period drama subject matter with someone like him as a director that made it feel a lot quieter than most films of this type, but I wanted to feel more than I did, I wanted more passion out of it. It's still a solid film and I'll see how it fares in my mind with time, but for now I say it was somewhat of a disappointment. I do think quieter films like this fare better with me the more I think about it, so I'm hopeful I'll like it a little more later on. Both Edgerton and Negga were really lovely, but I really don't see them getting nominated for an Oscar. I just think if a film is like this, the AMPAS will want something "bigger", both by the film and its actors and I just think in general everything here is way too subdued for them. It was great seeing Negga in a role so unlike her other one in Preacher and I can't wait to see more of her.

I had the chance to see this film at the Austin Film Festival, followed by a QA with the writer/director Jeff Nichols. Having already been familiar with this story from the made for television movie in 1996 starring Timothy Hutton and Lela Rochon as Richard and Mildred Loving. Many would ask why now or why remake this film? Well many people are simply unaware of this couple's story and their groundbreaking supreme court case, because it's certainly not mentioned or taught in public schools. So was the case for the writer/director, as mentioned he was not aware of their story. He carefully followed the documentary and archived records about them, while imagining what their conversations and dialogue would have been like between them. I found the landscape of the cinematography beautiful and breathtaking. The acting chemistry between Ruth Negga and Joel Edgarton was so tender and sincere, as you witness their love and vulnerabilities on screen, it makes you love the Lovings. Ruth Negga really shines as the quiet young woman who becomes the matriarch and leader of her family after watching the march on Washington DC, she decides to write a letter to then Attorney General Robert Kennedy. You see the transformation of two introverted people during the civil rights era become activists for change in their own way that is very powerful in this film. Historically many of the biracial descendants of this country's slave owning founding fathers never benefited from the wealth and privilege of the white ancestors. That is part of what what made their case was so monumental, in that it reversed segregationist slave laws that considered biracial children mongrel bastards and prohibited the rights of marriage and inheritance of interracial couples.