Love Is Strange

Wow!! A story told with simplicity, beauty and emotions sums up this wonderful story. I don’t know how many gay love stories have been made focussing on mature couples, maybe I haven’t seen them, but I am so glad that this film was made. Having lived in New York myself, I could really appreciate the nuances of New York real estate (which is kind of backbone for the film) and balancing work and life and family.

Ben and George have been together for 39 years. Ben, a painter, struggles with anxiousness and sadness at most mets and it is George who is always there to prep-talk him and make him look at the bright side. After years of being together, they finally decide to get married. But soon afterwards, George looses his job as choir director, because by marrying his partner, he has now officially come out. With loss of income, they have to sell their Ny apartment and temporarily take shelter at their friends/family couches albeit separately. Ben goes and lives with his nephews family and shares a bunk bed with their son while George ends up sleeping on the couch of their friend’s , a gay couple’s apartment. Not only do they have to deal with their own separation and being away from each other after so many years, they have to get adjusted to life style of their adopted families , which at their age is definitely not the easiest thing to do.  A chance meeting with a young man about to leave his ‘rent-controlled’ apartment brings back the ray of hope in their life. We don’t get to see what happens when they move in but we do see what happens a year later when George is left alone. Be’s grand-nephew comes to give George the last painting that Ben was working on when he was saying with them. This is his way of saying sorry for being mean to Ben’s artistic passion earlier.

Ben and George are so good in their roles that it is hard to imagine that these guys have not been together so many years. They capture the ease of such a relationship, where you want to grow old with someone and you actually do, beautifully. Kudos to the director as well of handling it beautifully. Their relationship is not of a casual friends but that of lovers who have become one after several decades of being together. The film is emotional and heartfelt, but never melodramatic. Certain scenes are long without much happening but they give an insight of the character’s inner lives for us. The lead characters are gay but the film is more about having to deal with growing old, still have to make money, gay partnership, how its not easy to survive in the “city”.

"Love is Strange" is a patient film. The emotions it unleashes are enormous. Great performance by lead characters makes this film immensely pleasurable to watch. (8/10)