Roy Narra writes about ‘All of Us Strangers’, Andrew Haigh’s heart-shattering adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s novel, Strangers. Spoilers are present in this review.
Is it better to be labeled as a gay man than being a queer? In Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, Adam (Andrew Scott, in his career-best performance) kind of cringed when Harry (Paul Mescal, continuously proving he’s the new face of great actors) sought clarification if he’s queer. Adam seems to find it odd to call himself queer while Harry argued that the term “gay” has been associated with negative stereotypes of being odd, weird, and abnormal.
Adapting the Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, Haigh continues to examine and assess the themes of loneliness, regret, and how the past blocks a person’s social connection in All of Us Strangers. The film feels like the spiritual sibling of Haigh’s 2011 queer classic Weekend as it revisits the director’s signature themes in looking at the life of a sad gay man in a city.
Adam, a gay screenwriter, struggles a lot. He can’t finish his screenplay, connect with other people, and overcome his guilt and trauma of losing both of his parents in a car accident when he was 12.
The film starts with a picturesque skyline of London, a view that was revealed to be from the perspective of Adam’s condominium unit. The opacity of his reflection on the window glass slowly increases. His deadpan stare at the skyline view seems to be carrying a hidden, repressed layer of stoicism.
Adam lives in the soul-sucking, empty city of London. The silence in his condo is deafening. The streets are eerily void of any interest. From time to time, Adam rides the train to the quiet countryside of Croydon to visit his ghost parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) living in his childhood home. They’re not semi-transparent like the ghosts in other films; the parents just stopped aging since their death and their fashion style is still stuck in the ‘90s.
One night, his neighbor Harry, giddy and obviously tipsy, invites him for a drink as he showcases his Japanese whisky in his hand. If he doesn’t drink, maybe Adam just wants to hang out with Harry and kill time. Is he finally going to have his meet-cute story with his handsome mysterious neighbor? Shy Adam, despite being alone all the time, rejects his advances.
Adam identifies as a gay man but he was never in a relationship. He doesn’t know what it feels like to be in love until he forms a bond with Harry. And when they did, director of photography Jamie D. Ramsay captured their romance in picturesque, cinematic, and dreamy intimate moments like exchanging deep cuts of their personal lives, making love during the magic hour, sharing drugs and kisses in the tight and dirty bathroom in the club like they’re in Troye Sivan’s Rush music video, and making out against the huge white light in the club like they’re in the climactic moment of a romantic film. These moments felt too good to be true for Adam and the hopeless romantic queer audiences.
Adam only pursued a relationship when he finally came out to the ghost of his parents. It would have been different if his parents had known the truth when they were still alive. His parents as ghosts are immortal, not bounded by the pressure of running, limited time. Adam’s mom wouldn’t feel the pressure of getting old and still not having a grandchild or his dad wanting to witness his wedding while he can still refrain from using a cane or a wheelchair. Would it be more painful for Adam to hear his mom’s initial homophobic reaction if she was still alive? Probably so. But this experience, an unfortunately common experience in the LGBT community, could lead Adam to a better notion of connecting to other people.
But they’re not alive. That’s what haunts Adam, preventing him from sharing love and connection. He was an early orphan, used to the pain of loneliness. He doesn’t fulfill the pleasures of being an adult queer: going to the club, hooking up, meeting someone like his neighbor, and being in a relationship.
All of Us Strangers says that to be queer is to love and be loved, to seek and to give a warm, assuring hug to people in seek of comfort in a lonely city.
All of Us Strangers is part of the 2023 QCinema International Film Festival lineup.
