Movie Reviews #40…
Loving. Jeff Nichols, writer/dir. While this true story is a better romance than anything schlockmeister Sparks writes, it’s much more. It’s a slow, intense suspense story that’s better than almost any fiction you can find! Although I knew the ending, that “spoiler alert” didn’t spoil any of my interest and enjoyment.
Let’s face it: this story of a white man married to a black woman and their long fight to make that legitimate in a state still having an egregious anti-miscegenation law on its books, a relic of segregation in this country, laid the foundation for the fight in favor of same-sex marriage and other battles about personal rights in this country. That moves this film far above anything Hollywood usually releases. Of course, in the Age of Trumpism, it probably won’t do well, but one can hope. (The assignment of the film to theaters known for artsy flicks won’t help—not many of those around anymore!)
The Lovings, brilliantly played by little-known actors Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, possessed a simple genius, especially the black woman, and a polite stubbornness that allowed them to do battle in a legal system stacked against them. They had some help, of course, from an ACLU legal team (not a frivolous choice by them in this case) and the media. Others less strong than the Lovings would have thrown in the towel and lived elsewhere, but they had a special nexus with the land and their (mostly) colorblind setting of family and friends (interestingly, not only bigoted whites were telling them they were doing wrong!). For the actors who portrayed the couple, I hope to see some Oscar nominations at least. Their portrayal of the tense years leading up to the SCOTUS decision in their favor cannot be improved.
The Commonwealth of Virginia, a bastion of the slaving South in 1860, thought it could still deny people the right to marry whom they choose 100 years after the Civil War. They were wrong. We see yet another cornerstone of segregated America crumble here and another step taken toward realizing a colorblind America and world, MLK’s dream (the current election is a setback, of course). Younger generations might not understand these struggles, but they were progressive advances important for America.
So the story is much more than the simple story of Mr. and Mrs. Loving. You should see this movie for many reasons—how romance and love can steel a couple for important battles, for a different take on race relations, and for important history brought to life by two talented actors. Probably the Lovings’ story basically wrote the screenplay, but Nichols’s direction turned it into a powerful statement—sometimes an understated drama can speak more powerfully than any strident historical biopic.
***
Action on the southern border! No, it’s not Trump beginning the construction of The Wall. It’s Chen and Castilblanco fighting terrorists, a cartel, and neo-Nazi militias. In Angels Need Not Apply, the deadly duo from the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” go undercover to fight crime as part of a national task force. This novel is available in all ebook formats.
In libris libertas!
