Liebe geht seltsame Wege (2014)

Liebe geht seltsame Wege: Directed by Ira Sachs. With Alfred Molina, John Lithgow, Darren E. Burrows, Charlie Tahan. After Ben and George get married, George is fired from his teaching post, forcing them to stay with friends separately while they sell their place and look for cheaper housing — a situation that weighs heavily on all involved.

“LOVE IS STRANGE is an interesting film, and one that will probably turn off a lot of viewers once they know what the concept is, but I thought it was a sweet portrayal of an aging couple who just happen to be gay. Alfred Molina and John Lithgow play Ben and George, a recently married couple who have been partners for 39 years. However, once Benu0026#39;s employer finds out about his marriage (he is the music teacher at a Catholic school), he loses his job and the couple are forced to sell their apartment because they canu0026#39;t afford it anymore. In the meantime while they look for a new apartment, they have to live separately with family and friends. And therein lies the trouble: they havenu0026#39;t been apart in all those years of living together, and the film explores how it affects them emotionally as well as the people they stay with.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile watching this I tried to keep the title at the front of my mind at all times, but I still donu0026#39;t know quite how it might strictly apply. The closest thing I can come up with is Georgeu0026#39;s nephewu0026#39;s family, who George ends up staying with. On the one hand, you have this aging couple who havenu0026#39;t been apart a day in their lives together who are now forced to be apart through circumstance; but then you have Georgeu0026#39;s nephew and his wife who live in the same house with their son, and yet each of them feels separated from the other by the way they live their lives. Georgeu0026#39;s nephew is a film producer who has long days away from home, while his wife (played by Marisa Tomei) is a writer who spends most of her time at home trying to write. And on top of that, their son keeps to himself a lot and spends most of his time with Vlad, his only friend at school. The general sense, or message, I got from the film is that it takes losing something to appreciate its true value.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eStill, whatever it was all supposed to add up to I thought that the performances were excellent. I havenu0026#39;t seen John Lithgow and Alfred Molina this good in years, and they were very believable as a couple who had been together for so long. Marisa Tomei also did great work as Georgeu0026#39;s nephewu0026#39;s wife. I should also mention the soundtrack composed mostly of Chopin, which I really loved. My favorite piece was the u0026quot;Raindropu0026quot; prelude which plays a few times during the film, and my favorite use of it was during a private piano lesson that Ben gives to one of his students. I also appreciated the nods to Benu0026#39;s religious faith, which never came into conflict with his personal life. Last, but not least, the cinematography and cityscape shots were extremely beautiful.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eStill, there is one thing which lessens the filmu0026#39;s impact in my opinion, and it has to do with the filmu0026#39;s ending (of which I wonu0026#39;t spoil the details). All I will say is that it feels more like an epilogue in the sense that there is a time jump (and something else) which came completely out of nowhere. It almost felt like they werenu0026#39;t quite sure how to wrap up the film, so they jumped ahead in an effort to give the story some closure. I didnu0026#39;t hate the ending, but I felt that maybe a different ending would have been just as good, possibly better. Still, I liked the film overall. It was a sweet indie drama that felt like a slice of life. On a side note, it kind of makes me never want to live in New York.”