Review: All of Us Strangers (2023)

All of Us Strangers

Rating

Director

Andrew Haigh

Screenplay

Andrew Haigh

Length

1h 45m

Starring

Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Carter John Grout, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy

MPAA Rating

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Review

Grief can be a powerful emotion that lingers long after the loss that spawned it. All of Us Strangers explores how regret colors one’s memories and allows one to fantasize about what might have been.

Trying to explore the essence of grief in the written form, screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) reflects back on the loss of his parents when he was twelve years old, never having gotten to show them what he had become. Blocked from starting his script, he travels back to his childhood home where he discovers his parents (Jamie Bell, Claire Foy) are still alive, just as they were more than two decades earlier. While he understands that they are figments of his imagination, he can’t help but seek them out regularly just to have conversations with them that he never could have had in reality.

The film also finds Adam seeking companionship in a fellow resident in his newly-constructed apartment building. Harry (Paul Mescal) makes the first move but does so more out of the same desperation he an Adam share, the need for others to fill the voids of their empty lives.

As with much of what writer/director Andrew Haigh has produced, the narrative themes are rich but subdued. The performances here aren’t filled with hollow theatrics or histrionics, making them feel more natural than they might otherwise have. Yet, as real as these figures are, his parents more real than Adam himself feels, the emotional connectedness is minimal and the film ends with little emotional catharsis. The ending is perhaps a bit surprising, but makes sense in the context of the film itself, which is all we can ask for.

What works best in this thought piece is the exploration of the change of attitudes from when 12-year-old Adam was coming to terms with his own sexuality and the more socially acceptable environment that now embraces him. Examining these attitudes with his sometimes confused, sometimes aloof parents allows some in the audience to connect with the material while others may remain unfazed. That may contribute to the film’s limited perspective. Non-LGBTQ kids who grew up in the 1980s in the specter of AIDS and the broadform rejection of their essential beings will find something emotionally resonant while younger audiences may have trouble understanding the touching depth of the journey Adam takes.

All of Us Strangers has a wonderfully subtle way of digging into the essence of being an aging member of the LGBTQ community, our challenges of relating to and connecting to others when we’ve spent so much time expecting those around us to hate or misunderstand us. It’s a solid look into the generational aspects of growing up queer for the survivors who made it to the now. Yet, its limited scope won’t connect with audiences at large.

Spoiler Discussion

It might be a lame joke, but this film could be considered the LGBTQ The Sixth Sense: “I see dead people.” No, I know it isn’t anything like M. Night Shyamalan’s film but considering how many dead people he can see, it is a somewhat interesting connection. Now to the crux of this sections discussions/arguments.

There are many theories out there. Some say that Adam may also be dead, which could explain why showing up and pestering his childhood home has not drawn the attention of the police. It might also suggest an alternative theory that Adam is the Angel of Death who guides the departed to their afterlives and that his “parents” are just some untethered souls that can’t let go of their orphaned son and that “Adam” takes on the guise of their son in order to alleviate their suffering and prepare them for departure. However, this theory does not fit because of the types of things he tells his parents and how they aren’t the types of things that allow specters to resolve their past trauma, especially those from a bygone era. It fits with the Harry scenes somewhat well but not with the parents.

To be honest, I don’t buy these alternative theories. They would certainly make the film seem deeper than it is; however, genuine depth should not require either familiarity with the source material or reading into things that aren’t explicitly presented in the film. Yes, that closing shot of zooming out into the cosmos could enable some of these concepts to have a foundation, but ambiguousness only makes the film feel less grounded than it already did.