Thursday, May 19, 2016

Mini Review: Loving

Director: Jeff Nichols
Producers: Nancy Buirski, Ged Doherty, Colin Firth, Sarah Green, Peter Saraf, Marc Turtletaub
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon, Ruth Negga, Marton Csokas, Nick Kroll, Alano Miller, Bill Camp, Jon Bass, Sharon Blackwood
Running time: 2 h 3 min

            Interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving fight for their right to marriage in Jeff Nichols’ Loving. Beyond creating a beautiful film, Nichols manages to anchor his argument for human rights by telling a human story. The history of this court case is important but it’s nothing you couldn’t read out a newspaper. The film speaks beyond its subject’s own history because it is rooted in the universal experience of the pursuit of happiness. The treatment of sound uses expert subtlety to evoke suspense in order to create the experience of fear and uncertainty in a story we all already know the ending to. Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga as Richard and Mildred Loving live out Nichols’ vision of humility and bravery without becoming archetypal heroes. In a world in which many are still fighting for their right to a normal life, Nichols reminds us that marriage is a human entitlement and not a political statement in this refreshingly human biopic.

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