Bryan Kluger For most, your wedding day is usually the happiest day of your life. It is where you tell the world in front of your friends, family, and God that you are committing to sharing your life with that special someone until you are no more. But for Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina), a gay couple who have been together for 39 years, are finally getting hitched in New York City. I wouldn't go as far as to say this is the happiest day of their lives, since we can already see in the opening minutes of the film that they have both led very happy lives together in their great Manhattan apartment, as they are getting ready like any other normal day for their wedding ceremony.Getting dressed, showering, fixing their bow ties, running late, and failing to find a cab to take them to their big event, Ben and George seem to have been through it all, and have taken each obstacle with grace and laughter. But when the two of them are separated physically right after their wedding day due to reasons beyond their control, indie director Ira Sachs ('Forty Shades of Blue') gives us an intimate glimpse into the human relationships through hardships so late in life.After their wedding, they have a small party at their apartment, which looks like any number of parties they might have thrown over the years complete with good food, good alcohol, singing and dancing. Their small wedding party includes Ben's nephew Elliot (Darren Burrows), a too busy for his own family businessman, his wife Kate (Marisa Tomei), a successful novelist who works from home, their teenage son Joey (Charlie Tahan), and two gay party-hopping police officers Roberto (Manny Perez) and Ted (Cheyenne Jackson), who live together in the newlywed's building.Unfortunately, the news of their marriage reaches the New York archdiocese, and George (a long time Catholic School music teacher) is fired from his job, forcing Ben and George to sell their apartment. When finding a new place is more difficult than originally anticipated, they graciously ask their friends and family for a roof over their heads. While Ben heads to his nephew's Elliot's house to share a bunk bed with their teenage son, George takes up the couch with hard partying Roberto and Ted.Sachs and his co-writer Mauricio Zacharias give us a very tender and realistic account of these two lovers in their later years, who are struggling to keep their happiness and find a way to physically be with each other again. Their script will bring up memories from any of your past relationships that are not only funny, but very charming and sweet, for example when the two men are in a historic gay bar, and talk about their younger lives together and all the trouble they used to get in as they looked over the younger crowd. And Sachs's camera-work is corresponding to Woody Allen's earlier work when i liked filming in New York. In a way, this is also Sachs's love memoir to the Big Apple as it too plays a character in the film.Molina and Lithgow deserve awards for their performances here. They really fall into their roles and make us believe that they have been together for four decades. Their eyes and body language really sell their love for one another, and has an infectious spell that hovers over the people they stay with. With the excellent script and the endearing performances from these aging actors, mixed with the classical score, 'Love is Strange' is one of those magical films you don't want to miss.

leonblackwood Review:  I wasn't a big fan of this film because it's really slow and there isn't that much going on. The acting is superb from Lithgow and Molina, who play a gay couple who are forced to leave there home after one of them loses his job. They end up living apart with different family members but there love is still strong and they meet up regularly. Molina lives in a lively party going house, which takes its toll after a while and Lithgow lives with a dysfunctional family, were he doesn't feel that welcome. The thing that made the film watchable was the relationship between Molina and Lithgow, which made the film seem very realistic. I was hoping for a bit more from the storyline but the director kept it very basic which made it drag after a while. The scenes with the loving couple were sweet and funny at times and I really felt sorry for them because they were living with inconsiderate family members who didn't acknowledge them at all. Anyway, it's a light hearted movie which has some touching moments but it isn't that amazing. Average!Round-Up: I really did think that John Lithgow was older than 69 because it's seems like he's been acting forever and his looks haven't changed that much. He recently starred in Interstellar, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, The Homesman and This Is 40 and he done a lot of TV work so he's still been taken seriously in Hollywood. He has a unique, no fuss approach to acting, which really worked well in this movie. Alfred Molina, whose is only 62 but also looks like he's been on screen forever, is mostly known for his role as Doc Ock in Spiderman 2 and he also starred in Boogie Nights as the crazy drug dealer, the Da Vinci Code and many TV series. He also has a unique style which made the chemistry between the two actors brilliant. Shame the script wasn't as good! The director, Ira Sachs, has only made 7 major movies which includes Married Life with Pierce Brosnan and Keep The Lights On which is another movie about a gay couple. I honestly think that he wasted the great cast in this film and I wasn't that impressed with the ending.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $2.2millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their dramatic movies about a gay couple who are forced to live separately after loses there home because one of the loses his job. 3/10

lasttimeisaw This Ira Sachs' follow-up of his strained relationship chronicle KEEP THE LIGHTS ON (2012) revolves around a senior gay couple in Manhattan, New York, Ben (Lithgow), an obscure painter and George (Molina), a music teacher in a Catholic school, after gay-marriage has been legalised, they finally tie the knot after 39 years together, their love has been blessed by friends and family, but the segueing repercussions cost George his post due to the obvious prejudice among those religious conservatives, and the unforeseen financial plight forces them to sell the apartment and live with their relatives and friends, yet as none of them have extra rooms for both, so they have to spend the transitional time separately.The story unwinds with both encounter difficulties in their provisional homes, Ben is living with his nephew Elliot (Burrows), a photographer, his writer wife Kate (Tomei) and their teenage son Joey (Tahan), his inconvenient intrusion already ruffles Joey's feathers as they have to share a same room with a double bunk, moreover, the co-existence slowly but surely also tests the limitation of Kate's patience. In another side, George becomes a couch-surfer in their friends Ted (Jackson) and Roberto (Perez)'s apartment, however, the unashamed cliché is they are frequent home-party throwers, even when they have a friend sleeping on their couch. Their situations are not too rosy, but admirably Sachs doesn't plunge the usual melodrama between them, after being each other's soul-mate and life-partners for such a long time, they reach the mutual coordination of understanding, respect and support, the story itself transcends the gay setting and sublimates into a hymn to universal love which only those very few can actually acquire in reality. Thanks to Lithgow and Molina's unforced but extremely moving performances, which potently fuels the final revelation with utter poignancy, and pretty unusually, in an extraordinary way. Rather than a tearjerker, the film more inclines to be a worshipper of love and respect even when in the time of loss, through a subplot of Joey's own wayward pubertal rebellion, we have the chance to glance at the real problem inside straight people's gay-friendly facade, the fight for equality and against discrimination is a protracted battle and there is no time for slackening. I should also name-check Tomei for her brilliant turn as Kate, gallantly runs the full gamut from the one who gifts them an affecting ode about how Ben and George are exemplars of love for her and Elliot, to her final scene of a hysterical flare-up to vent her frustration and dissatisfaction, she is truly amazing.Under the pervasion of classical music pieces, LOVE IS STRANGE is alternately heart- warming, heart-touching and heart-rending, Ira Sachs perfects his narrative strategy with more self-control and less on-the-nose intensity, and it turns out to be an unheralded gem not just from the viewpoint of LGBT genre, but a brutally honest take on senility and appeals for an authentic mutual esteem among each and every soul on the earth.

gazferg Kevin's review of Love is Strange is overly critical and I wonder why it drips with anger about a movie, which while flawed in some parts, is overall a considered, well-acted and beautifully photographed piece of cinema. For once not only is it a delight to see positive representations of older people on the screen but it's refreshing to see the depiction of 2 older gay men in a celebrated way. Often older gay men and lesbians are absent not only in cinema but also in their respective communities, which seem obsessed with youthfulness. And if you don't understand why Uncle Ben's grand nephew, Joey, is crying towards the end then you've missed a key part of the movie, which in a mainstream Hollywood movie would be milked for every emotion from the audience. Here it is marked with subtlety. Rather than continue responding to Kevin's misrepresentation of the movie and lack of insight, let me express my own thoughts. Ben and George are older gay men who have been married for 39 years. They live comfortably in a New York apartment; Ben drawing a pension and painting and George teaching music at a local Catholic school. There trusting intimacy with each other comes from a long-term relationship which has weathered storms but remained honest. This is borne out several times during the movie and notably in a bar when they're having drinks together. In the opening moments of the movie they marry and celebrate with family and close friends. When George returns to school after the term break the headmaster, Father Raymond, dismisses George for his public declaration of his sexuality, even though the school community has been aware of George's relationship for the entirety of his employment (13 years). As a result, Ben and George can no longer afford to continue buying the apartment they're living in. They move out while they look for alternative accommodation thinking that it will be only a short time before they find somewhere. Consequently, they ask friends and family to accommodate them in the short-term; they agree and are more than willing to help out. Ben's niece, who lives upstate, assumes that it's her place to accommodate them because she has the room. However, the other friends and family, knowing George and Ben are urban Manhattanites and would hate a rural lifestyle, insist they should remain in the city, which they love and know. Consequently George is accommodated by the 2 gay cops in the downstairs apartment and Ben stays with his nephew and his partner and their son and bunks in with the son in his bedroom. The accommodation is hardly satisfactory for these 2 seniors; George sleeps on a couch but only when the 2 gay cops finish there entertaining after their shifts. The movie focuses on the relationships in the home of Ben's nephew and the difficulties experienced by Ben and George living apart in residences with vastly different house rules. Ben and George find it difficult to find accommodation and George discovers for various reasons that after they move from their apartment, the amount of money left over is miniscule because of taxes … etc. Eventually, at a party, George bumps into Ian, an Englishman, who is about to move out of his apartment and this is where the breakthrough occurs in resolving Ben and Georges accommodation problems. But is it too late? This movie is well crafted and beautifully acted not only by the 2 main characters Alfred Molina and John Lithgow but most of the supporting cast. It's a movie that suggests that the rights of gay men and lesbians haven't necessarily been addressed by the right for them to legally marry. In fact, it is clear that gay men and lesbians still have a long way to go to attain equal rights in some sections of society. It is a considered story that is lightly accessorised with moving music throughout and nothing more. The camera work captures New York City in the most amazing light at times and clearly demonstrates the reasons why Ben and George are at home here and love it so much. I was moved by this movie in a number of ways and most of the audience in the cinema seemed to be affected the same way. Hardly any left until the last credits had rolled, a rarity in most cinemas these days. I highly recommend this movie; go and see it and be pleasantly surprised!