Love Is Strange: best of the London Film Festival 2014, part five

Love Is Strange: a more exquisite meditation on the beauty of strong, long-term relationships is hard to think of in modern cinema.

Alfred Molina and John Lithgow are both on top form as a gay couple, nearing the end of their fourth decade together. The film immerses us in their lives, opening with their long-awaited wedding and then showing us the unintended consequences of that day.

Director and co-writer Ira Sachs delicately dissects the central pair’s relationship with a level of intimacy rarely achieved on screen: you feel like a fly on the wall as they go through their ups and downs.

Not at a lot happens in plot terms, and yet so much happens in emotional terms.

Among the supporting cast, Marisa Tomei is almost inevitably excellent, but this is the Molina and Lithgow show. The pair have been guilty of mercilessly chewing the scenery in the past, but here they both display light, understated touches that perfectly suit the material. If there’s an award for the best on-screen couple of 2014, these two deserve it.

See this with one you love: you will not regret it.

Score: 9/10