Loving (2016) Review!!!

Synopsis – The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, whose challenge of their anti-miscegenation arrest for their marriage in Virginia led to a legal battle that would end at the US Supreme Court.

My Take – As evident from the trailers, this is a civil rights film. But unlike all the other civil rights bio-pics, this one centers on interracial love, the famous Loving Vs Virginia and the eventual lifting of the ban on interracial marriage. This film couldn’t have come at a better time, as America is surely in tumultuous times right now. It seems appalling that interracial marriage was still illegal in some states fifty some years ago, but have we really come that far since? This latest film from Jeff Nichols is nearly beautifully-told, graceful and affecting as the filmmaker focused on the couple themselves instead of making a political statement. Yes of course the film has a major political and social implication, as the Supreme Court decision on Loving v. Virginia put an end to all miscegenation laws in 1967. But at the end of the day, the story focuses on being about two human beings who loved each other and wanted to raise a family together. This film is very quiet, but none the less very powerful and well made. There is no violence or swearing in this film apart from a couple of mild threats. As a compelling human interest story, the film is exceptional. As a film narrative, I thought the picture was unusually low key and plodding in its execution, with very little drama to heighten the importance of a Supreme Court decision that was nothing short of landmark when issued in 1967, a full nine years after the ordeal began for Richard and Mildred Loving. Writer/director Jeff Nichols (Midnight Special, Take Shelter) proves again he has a distinct feel and sensitivity for the southern way. There is nothing showy about his style, and in fact, his storytelling is at its most effective in the small, intimate moments, he goes quiet where other filmmakers would go big. Rather than an overwrought political statement, Nichols keeps the focus on two people just trying to live their life together. For anyone planning to see this film, thinking that you will be seeing high drama and/or great dialogue, please be warned: This is not the film for you. Richard and Mildred Loving were simple working-class people. They didn’t seek attention or fame. They just loved each other and had a “pigmentation problem.”

The story follows the true story of an interracial couple who fell in love. In the beginning of the film, we see Mr. Loving building a new home for himself and his wife. Little did they know that the police were going to soon find out about their marriage and shortly after, they would end up in jail. Back in 1967, in the state of Virginia, interracial marriages were illegal. But love has no color so Mildred Loving (Ruth Negga) and Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) decide to fight for what they believed in. When the police find out, they try to stop them. They are arrested and sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958, because their interracial marriage violates the state’s anti-miscegenation laws. Exiled to Washington, D.C., they sue the state of Virginia in a series of proceedings leading to the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Loving v. Virginia, which holds that laws prohibiting interracial marriage are unconstitutional. The film takes an interesting perspective of the love between Richard and Mildred. Richard basically becomes an outcast in the white community because of his relationship with Mildred. Most of the white people in film are pretty much disgusted with Richard because he is with Mildred. They believe he should “know better” and that is just not right for black people and white people to be together. Even Richard’s mom tells him that he should never married Mildred. The state of Virginia would not allow them to be together and forces them to leave the state in which they cannot return together for 25 years. Richard loves Mildred and wants them to have a normal life so through it all he still finds time to finish the house he is building for her. Though in the film they seem to be making a good living with three children, Mildred still seems very unhappy, and we get the feeling that is she very home sick. The film takes place during the civil rights movement and lawyer Bernard Cohen wants to take their case to the Supreme Court. Richard is reluctant to take the offer because he is afraid to take to take it to the Supreme Court while Mildred is fed up and packs their bags to go back to Virginia. The filmmakers focus more on their relationship than civil right issues occurring at the time which I feel would have added more seriousness to the situation. The display of the relationship between Richard and Mildred does make the story more personable. The lawyer seems to wants to take on their case more for his own personal gain than to actually help them. Cohen and his team basically want to use their marriage as the cover face for the allowance of interracial marriage in the South and potentially in the U.S. Director Jeff Nichols an excellent job of displaying the love between Mildred and Richard. There are many scenes of the couple holding hands, cuddling, and just caring for one another. Mildred loves Richard but she wants to fight for what’s right and in the long run help others get the rights they deserve. As husband and wife they do whatever they can to support each other. They decide to do whatever possible to live peacefully with their beautiful children, even if that means taking their case to the Supreme Court. When the ACLU-assigned young (and green) lawyer Bernard Cohen (Nick Kroll) gets involved, we see how the case hinges on public perception and changing social mores. Michael Shannon appears as the Life Magazine photographer who shot the iconic images of the couple at home for a spread that presented the Lovings not as an interracial couple, but rather as simply a normal married couple raising their kids. This film is also about hope. Even despite everything, all the adversity and hardship there is always hope. That was one thing I really took away from the film. This film is also about freedom, liberty and rights.

Unfortunately, I do have some issues with the film, mainly for being not very interesting. Jeff Nichols who has written all of the scripts of films he has worked on. I can appreciate his writing without falling in love with it and this is probably his most dull script. His films have a simplicity to them, that can get a bit more complex depending on the film, but usually he keeps things fairly easy to understand and follow. I can appreciate a slow film, as long as it builds to something worthwhile. With this film, it’s slow and there’s no overarching momentum. There’s no fluidity. It just inches along through a collection of scenes. And these scenes end up being incredibly repetitive. Not only do we see the characters doing a lot of the same things they were doing before, but a lot of information is repeated over and over. Scenes happen that give us no new information, or repeat what we learned from an earlier scene. It’s not just that some scenes needed to be cut, the entire film needed to be restructured. As it stands right now, there’s no connective tissue making this a cohesive film. It’s just scene after scene. And yes, there is an endgame, but it’s glossed over and trivialized in the scheme of the entirety of the film. A big contributor to this is the fact that the film doesn’t share that much dialogue of consequence. There’s plenty of small talk, but their quiet, intimate moments together are exactly that: quiet. They cuddle and they hug and they laugh, but they don’t ever talk things out or openly discuss the problems they’re facing, whether it’s the monumental issue of the law or the smaller stresses at home, like raising three children. One could argue that they were just simple country folk so they wouldn’t get into lengthy, meaningful discussions about such things, but even if that were the case in real life, this is a film, and film’s need fleshed-out characters. As it stands in the final cut of the film, Richard and Mildred are much too stoic for us to really connect with their struggle. We’re shown how, but we never get a chance to understand why. Another problem the film faces is the fact that it doesn’t feature a single supporting character worth remembering, and that’s not because the cast wasn’t up to snuff, either. Marton Csokas as the hard and mean sheriff and Michael Shannon as the quirky photographer from Life Magazine are but two examples of the tools this film had at its disposal, but neither are given any substantial attention. Characters come and go without ever making a real impact and the ones that do stick around end up being the least interesting and most poorly portrayed. On the critical point of this film, I do wonder in such a racial turbulent time period in the south, how could such a love begin and exist between a White man and a Black woman. I wanted to see how they first met and started dating and show more of what their family members thought. It was not so easy to walk out in public as shown in the film where they are kissing with passion at the race car event. There should have been more vile evil spewing from Marton Csokas as the racist police chief. He should have been more mean spirit with Mildred and looking down scornfully on Richard in jail and his office. However, what works here is the cinematography & the performances. Cinematographer Adam Stone complements the spot on setting, costumes and cars which capture the look and feel of the era (over a 10 year period). Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga as Richard and Mildred Loving respectively, deliver brilliant performances. Edgerton is astonishing here, portraying a man torn by injustice & yet never giving up on the women he loves. Right from his body-language, to his perfect Native American accent & ultimately to his heartbreaking emotional breakdowns, Edgerton is simply faultless. Negga is a revelation, portraying a woman disgraced for the color of her skin & yet never leaving the man she truly loves. Negga uses her piercing eyes to deliver a volcano of emotions. Together, Edgerton & Negga are pure acting gold. On the whole, ‘Loving’ is a simple, quiet, touching film which is a little underwritten for a story worth telling.