Love Is Strange (2014)

Director: Ira Sachs

Writers: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias

Composer: Classical music score, no composer.

Starring: John Lithgow, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei, Cheyenne Jackson, Charlie Tahan, Darren E. Burrows, Christian Coulson, Harriet Sansom Harris, Adriane Lenox, John Cullum

More info: IMDb

Plot: After 39 years together, Ben and George finally tie the knot in an idyllic wedding ceremony in lower Manhattan. But when news of their marriage reaches the Catholic school where George works, he is fired from his longtime job, and the couple can no longer afford their New York City apartment. As a temporary solution, George moves in with the two gay cops next door, while Ben moves to Brooklyn to live with his nephew, Eliot; Eliot’s wife, Kate; and their teenage son. As Ben and George struggle to secure a new apartment, the pain of living apart and their presence in two foreign households test the resilience and relationships of all involved.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah.

Sundance Film Festival 2014

Man, I'm really digging these 'slice of life' pictures that don't fill in all the blanks, hold your hand and give you resolutions to everything and every character introduced.  I've seen a couple of pictures like that here at Sundance this week.  The performances are great and I dug the situations these characters found themselves in.  It was kind of strange that Ben (Lithgow) and George (Molina) had to split up in order to still live in NYC but just run with it.  There's a scene I, and just about everyone I think, related to.  Kate (Tomei) is trying to work (she's writing another book) and Ben (her husband's uncle) won't shut the fuck up and let her work.  He's just throwing out small talk but he's not picking up on the signals she's throwing out.  It's a brilliant scene in that it plays out just like it has for me over and over again. I got that weird feeling watching it.  The ending is beautiful and it might leave you asking questions but the answers don't matter because either way, it works out.  It's a beautifully poetic close to a sweet and caring film.