Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers isn’t a film for the fainthearted, but it’s one worth watching when viewers are in the right headspace for something hauntingly heavier that comprehensively explores grief and loneliness. In the hands of a lesser-skilled leading actor, the premise would get dreary to the point of harping on trauma for shock value, but the quartet of performers and Haigh’s meticulous means of showcasing the passage of time work to the story’s benefit.
Grief and loneliness are perhaps two of the most universal themes a piece of media could portray. Someone somewhere has felt either one or both of them profoundly in their lives, resulting in what might’ve certainly been some of their worst hours on earth. It’s difficult to process the depth of someone else’s heartaches, but it’s effortless to see that the pain is too much and too brutal at times, which All of Us Strangers depicts thoroughly through close-up shots of expressions that say far more than words could. This isn’t a love story, not in the way many of us wish it’d be, but it’s still a harrowing exhibition of the fact that love is the very reason why grief leaves a colossal impact.
Haigh relies on Andrew Scott to infuse love into everything he does, so much so that the plot takes a backseat to the character’s journey unfolding. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; I’ll always take a heavy character arc over an intricate plot, but the ending stings in a way that doesn’t feel earned. An ambiguous ending of this sort is one film critic’s dream and another’s worst nightmare, yet the tour-de-force performances are worth praising over and over again. It’s why the entire film works, even when one piece of the puzzle evokes too much sadness and confusion.
A grown man visiting his dead parents and exploring his current life with his past sounds as bizarre on paper as it is on screen, but the stars bring every beat of the trip to life with such nuance that it’s entirely believable. You get sucked into a place that feels real, even when the back of your mind is nagging you to pay attention to the fact that it isn’t. Yet, these very depictions of honest human conversations authenticate why human beings need one another to live fully.
Adam’s visits with his parents and, subsequently, his time spent with Paul Mescal’s Harry convey a loneliness so intensely suffocating that it’s entirely unfathomable at times. The reunions come with challenging conversations about Adam’s sexuality, his painful childhood experiences, and tearful pleas to keep them around. It’s difficult to watch at times, full of such raw heartaches that it’s palpable in every move Scott makes as Adam, but the rapport between Jamie Bell and Claire Foy makes it impossible to look away. Again, in the hands of lesser-skilled actors, so many of these scenes wouldn’t hit as poignantly as they do in All of Us Strangers—everything you’ve seen from these actors in other roles doesn’t even begin to prepare for the greatness they exhibit here.
Simultaneously, the romance between Mescal’s Harry and Scott’s Adam is easy to root for as it begins with playful banters and stirs toward gut-wrenching conversations about their upbringings and where they are in life. It’s effortless to wish for a happy ending when their chemistry is as charming and electric as it is, but you know right from the start that this isn’t that kind of a film. (Dear Reader, treat yourself to Prime Video’s Red, White and Royal Blue afterward for a load of happiness.) Still, All of Us Strangers is a poignantly refined mosaic that encapsulates the terrors and aches of loneliness with a superbly gifted cast who embody some of the most challenging human emotions with immense heart and vulnerability.
All of Us Strangers is coming to theaters on December 22 and January 26 in the UK.