Based on a true story, Jeff Nichols' Loving recounts the struggles of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, who were sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958 for getting married. With little power of their own to fight the state's bigoted stance, Richard and Mildred were forced out of the very place where they grew up, the only place they ever knew, forced to retreat to the urban landscapes of Washington D.C. where they are at least aloud to be together. As time passes, and Richard and Mildred's family grows, their irritations with being away from the countryside intensify, leading to the ACLU taking on their case, one that is eventually settled in the supreme court. A story that is loaded with emotion and an important message about bigotry and racism, Jeff Nichols' Loving is another Hollywood film that could have easily rested on its laurels, relying primarily on its powerful subject matter to touch the audience. Fortunately, Loving is much more than that, being a film that understands the importance of finding the humanity in each of its characters, detailing their struggle in nuanced ways, tapping into the fundamental nature of love itself as these two characters live for one and other, unwilling to be torn apart by the outside, vindictive forces of the world. While the story itself provides the heavy lifting, it's the characterizations themselves that make Loving more than an important reminder of our troubled past, detailing both Richard and Mildred's shared and personal struggles as they try to raise and family in Virginia. Joel Edgerton's portrayal of Richard is one great example of that, a simple-minded man who struggles to even fundamentally grasp the reasons why the state won't allow himself to be married to Mildred, unable to psychologically grasp such bigotry, only concerned with loving and caring for his wife. Richard is a character who is too simple to grasp the gravitas of the situation he finds himself in, a man who wants nothing more than the media circus and attention to go away, so he and his wife can be left alone in the countryside where they are can raise their family in peace. A good man, Richard's simplicity or naivety toward the gravitas of the situation provides the perfect window into the absurdity of this law against interracial marriage and/or reproduction, a law that fundamentally takes the rights of both him and his wife Mildred, stripping them from their ability to choose where they live, own property, and raise their children. Mildred as a character is much more aware of the bigotry which exists, a sharper character than her husband who we can only assume has seen it first hand due to the darker complexion of her skin. She is the stronger character in a lot of ways, the one that pushes Richard to fight for their ability to choose where they life, growing tired of the restrictive spaces of Washington DC, intent on returning to the open spaces of the countryside, a place where she has always called home. She is a character of optimism and fortitude, one that never gives up home, knowing very well that her husband himself simply doesn't grasp the racial bigotry which permeates, something which one could assume makes her love him even more. Perhaps the most important aspect of Loving is that it never goes for the cheap, shock drama that plagues many films dealing with subjects of racism, with Nichols understanding that such a story has absolutely no need for overdramatic moments of grandeur, relying on his subtle film-making to captures the quiet, oppressive, restrictive culture that both these main characters' find themselves in. The landmark decision iteself, one that takes place in the supreme court, is regulated to the background by the end of Loving, with Nichols interlacing the supreme court proceedings with the Loving family going about their day, with the landmark verdict only being captured on screen via a phone call, as if Nichols' subtly reminds the viewer that this has and always has been about family and love, focusing on the very characters who are now free to live in this country with the same freedoms as all. Featuring a subject matter that provides more than enough emotional fireworks, Jeff Nichols' Loving elevates itself among mere Oscar fare due to its well-developed characterizations, nuanced direction, and its fundamental understanding of the true importance of this story, one about two individuals who simply want to have the same basic individual freedoms bestowed to all Americans.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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