‘All of Us Strangers’ Review: A Lonely Gay Man Explores Missed Connections in Andrew Haigh’s Latest Heartbreaker
01.09.2023 - 06:55
/ variety.com
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic The best scene of “Call Me by Your Name” has nothing to do with fruit, but a frank father-son conversation. Brittle to the point of breaking, Timothée Chalamet sits on the couch, arms crossed, resenting his dad for acknowledging the source of his anguish. “You’re too smart not to know how rare, how special, what you two had was,” Michael Stuhlbarg tells the boy.
“I may have come close, but I never had what you two have. … How you live your life is your business.” Gay men rarely receive that kind of acceptance from anyone, much less their parents, and hearing those words uttered in “Call Me by Your Name” went a long way to heal that wound for many who didn’t get that satisfaction from their own folks. Half a dozen years later, Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” feels like a feature-length expansion of that scene — or at least the sentiment it evokes — as a gay man who never had the chance to come out to his parents returns home, surprised to find Mum and Dad waiting for him.
They died in a car crash when he was 11, but here they are, curious and caring, greeting him with hugs and unconditional love. Andrew Scott, an actor familiar to many as the “hot priest” from “Fleabag,” plays Adam, a forlorn soul with dewy brown eyes who could be Mark Ruffalo’s kid brother. Adam reconnects with his dead parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) just as he’s getting to know a promising new boyfriend, Harry (a shaggy Paul Mescal, with mustache).
The only other resident in Adam’s modern London apartment tower, Harry shows up at Adam’s door one night with a bottle of whiskey, three-quarters empty. He’s drunk and slightly desperate, and Adam sends him away. But things go better the next time they see each
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