Director Andrew Haigh’s canvas is the universal human experience, brushed with bold strokes that outline the intricate layers of intimate connections. Throughout this gut-wrenching emotional journey, Haigh and his extraordinary cast masterfully orchestrate a haunting symphony of alienation and its clash with eerie familiarity.
Haigh always crafts films that pulse with a distinct sense of realism, transcending the mundane to unveil the profound. Loosely based on the 1987 novel Strangers, by Taichi Yamada, Haigh’s screenplay cleverly elevates the supernatural themes and updates the attitudes of the romantic leads to represent the unsettling isolation of two gay men, damaged by their past but at last finding companionship.
Adam and Harry (portrayed with heart-breaking perfection by Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal) live in a newly built London highrise where they seem to be the only two occupants in residence. From afar they observe one another’s solitary silhouettes as stark symbols of the ache they feel within. As Adam, Andrew Scott embodies a man numbed by the weight of past tragedy, his every gesture and expression a portrait of pain and steadfast resilience. Echoing Adam’s anguish is Paul Mescal’s Harry, 20 years younger, and burdened with anguish of his own. With each glance and caress, they’re two wounded souls who share the same yearning for solace.
To mirror this relationship, Haigh introduces Clair Foy and Jamie Bell as apparitions of Adam’s parents who were killed in a car crash 30 years earlier, when their son was only 12. With incredible grace, humor, and tender compassion, they each get a second chance to tell each other everything that they had no time to sort out before. Together, these 4 brilliant performances weave a mesmerizing tale—a strange but wonderful tapestry of love’s redemptive power amid the chaos of shattered hearts, interrupted lives, and fractured spirits cut adrift.
With tentative strokes and soulful glances that speak volumes, Adam and Harry gradually accept that they need not face a solitary lifetime lost in London’s forbidding throng. Their tangible thirst for connection and their hunger for belonging help them bridge the distance created by the chasm of parallel family catastrophes that long ago put them on the path to meet.
The backdrop in Haigh’s films aren’t merely physical but manifest as cerebral terrain, where characters navigate the hazy landscape of their hearts and desires. He immerses audiences in worlds that feel palpably authentic but often alarmingly off-kilter, allowing us to not just witness but to viscerally feel, as if we inhabit the emotional turmoil and vulnerability of his characters.
All of Strangers takes those themes a step further. Its magic quickly carries us to a twilight world where the tender memories of Adam’s tragic childhood transform into a troubling rendezvous with the inexplicable appearance of his parents, just as they were when he was a child. One plane of consciousness leads to another, from a chilly but familiar level of existence to one that is more mysterious but somehow more warmly comforting.
With these delicate strokes, Andrew Haigh unravels a tale of isolation and loss, blurring the boundaries between the living and the spectral, leaving viewers spellbound in the enigmatic dance between the known and the unknowable. All of Us Strangers immerses us in a richly saturated dreamscape, weaving a surreal tapestry where the mundane transcends into a realm of phantoms
In All of Us Strangers, sensual images help us chart the lonely labyrinth of modern life, where shadows can conceal secrets but reveal spectral spirits. Distant figures and isolated points of light beckon with a promise of fulfillment. Colors radiate with warmth, where even the faintest lights generate passion. When the journey pivots to return us to reality, it’s gut-wrenching to watch this saturated palette fade like an old photo framed too long in harsh sunlight.
All these visual elements are precisely tuned to enhance the emotional impact of All of Us Strangers.
The cinematography by Jamie D. Ramsay uses light as a shimmering presence that glows with a soul of its own. Carefully detailed production design by Sarah Finley and the comforting textures of costumes by Sarah Blenkinsop invite us to revisit the reassuring realm of Adam’s childhood home.
Jonathan Alberts smoothly edits the overlapping layers of reality in a way that keeps us grounded even when Adam and Harry are knocked off balance, and the original score by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch dances gracefully between the passion and tragedy, with evocative melodies that lift us along the film’s daring narrative leaps.
It’s a rare feat to see every element of cinematic craft stand out so distinctly yet combine so seamlessly. In a film where dreams and ghosts threaten to loosen our grip on reality, Andrew Haigh and his collaborators envelope the audience in the story’s haunting embrace.
Andrew Haigh’s recurring themes echo like a haunting melody throughout his films. Relationships, their fragility, and the complexities they harbor stand as pillars in his cinematic architecture. Haigh never shies away from the messiness of human connections; instead, he embraces it, capturing the lavish turmoil of love, longing, and the inevitable tensions that shape our most meaningful bonds.
All of Us Strangers resonates not solely for its storytelling flair but for the ability of Haigh and his brilliant cast to evoke our shared humanity. The aching tale Haigh tells of Adam and Harry resonates because they mirror the ebbs and flows of our own lives, reminding us of the intricate dance we all perform in pursuit of love, connection, and meaning. In the end we are asked to confront a profound question: Even as we cherish the memories of loved ones we’ve lost, do those departed souls need our remembrance to help them find peace?
Categories to consider:
BEST PICTURE
Produced by • Graham Broadbent • Pete Czernin • Sarah Harvey
BEST DIRECTOR
Directed by • Andrew Haigh
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Written by • Andrew Haigh
BEST ACTOR
Andrew Scott
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Claire Foy
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Jamie D. Ramsay
BEST FILM EDITING
Jonathan Alberts
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Sarah Finley
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Sarah Blenkinsop