Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers is a powerful exploration of more than just romantic love – highlighting the crucial connections with others that define us as humans.
In a film headlined by Irish talent, Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal play the characters of Adam and Harry, each navigating through their own past trauma in the same near-empty tower block in London. The two are united by their loneliness and portray the journey of letting a stranger into both your life and heart. Scott and Mescal complement each other so perfectly, with Mescal’s Harry charismatically encouraging Scott’s Adam to shed inhibitions and accept his true self.
Whilst Adam and Harry’s relationship is an integral part of the film, Andrew Haigh manages to capture love in all of its forms. I think what makes this film unique is that it can’t be defined as simply a romance. Haigh creates a web of relationships that echoes real life; we never have only one connection in our lives, we are made up from our countless experiences and relationships that have shaped us in some way. Familial love is at the centre of this as childhood nostalgia is brought to life through Adam’s interactions with his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell). I don’t think I have ever seen a film that so beautifully portrays a parent-child dynamic and had me reaching for the phone just to hear my parents’ voices by the end!
Andrew Scott acts with such honest vulnerability, creating an almost childlike quality to his performance that makes him all the more endearing. Adam’s apparent lack of self-love at the beginning of the film is the manifestation of his tough reality of growing up gay in the 80s, but Harry offers a safe space for his sexuality to be celebrated rather than suppressed. Mescal creates a character with carefree freedom whilst, at the same time, passionately caring for Adam. However, there is the nagging, underlying feeling that this is all a front and Mescal manages to subtly suggest that not everything is completely as it seems for Harry.
An emotional film doesn’t always equate to sadness. Don’t get me wrong, this film is sad but it also has moments of pure happiness and love that take you on a rollercoaster of emotions that encapsulate what it means to be alive and to feel. The feelings evoked are so universally relatable whilst also seeming so painfully personal for the characters. Andrew Haigh has created a world with a definite element of strangeness without it being totally surreal and far-fetched. He said he wanted to create the feel of a dream; you know you are taking some sort of emotion away from it but you can’t necessarily piece everything together immediately. However, unlike a dream, I won’t be forgetting this film anytime soon.
Edited by Nicole Collins
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