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Product Name: Loving [DVD] [2016]
UPC: 025192395703
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Rated 5 out of 5 stars
A Lovely True Story
Back when it was against the law for black and white people to be married as one, is the setting of this movie. Its a true story and it makes you think.
Much goes unspoken in Loving, but that shouldn't be a surprise given it comes from director Jeff Nichols who has given us such restrained and meditative pieces as Take Shelter and Mud, not to mention his slight venture into genre territory earlier this year with Midnight Special. Still, Loving is something of a different beast. As with most of Nichols films the multi-hyphenate again deals in its main male character working through a particularly life-altering time in his life. Whether it be a man working through understanding an illness, heartbreak, or a parents love for their child Nichols is clearly attracted to these leading male characters that carry burdens of one type or another-none of which can actually be drawn as distinctly as I've just done. In Loving, this Nichols quality is born in the form of Richard Loving as played by Joel Edgerton who is a simple man who loves a woman just as simply, but is told he can't due to the race laws that plagued the time in which he was born. What separates Loving from Nichols filmography thus far is the fact Nichols has yet to adapt a true story or any other source material for that matter for one of his films. They have all been original concepts and ideas that have allowed the writer/director his own ways/styles of telling his own stories, but with Loving he has crafted a film very much in the vein of his previous works while still seemingly allowing the genuine spirit of those who actually lived this story to come through. Nichols accomplishes this by not making up much of his own dialogue for the real-life people to say. Rather, Nichols allows much of what needs to be said to be said through the performances of Edgerton and his co-lead Ruth Negga as Mildred Loving. In doing so, Loving ends up not as an overly schmaltzy or sentimental love story or even a melodramatic courtroom drama, but instead a subtle study of how simple true love can be despite how complicated our world can make it.
This movie is based on the true story of a working class interracial couple in the 1950s and 1960s in Virginia who want nothing more than to live their lives together in peace with their children and extended family. They can't do that because of Virginia laws at the time. This movie shows their personal and legal struggles with that racism, including their vindication by the US Supreme Court. The 2 lead actors are simply astoundingly great. This is one of the best movies on the evils of racism I've seen, with understated but truly powerful performances by all.
