'All Of Us Strangers' A Review

All Of Us Strangers is a supernatural drama about Adam(Andrew Scott) a lonesome screenwriter in London who strikes up a relationship with his neighbor Harry(Paul Mescal) at the same time he is returning to his childhood home to visit with his deceased parents(Jamie Bell and Claire Foy).

Scott is raw, emotional, and open. Its a very heartfelt and true performance, he's clearly giving it everything he's got which is commendable and at times truly beautiful but some of the script and editing work against the work he's trying to do. A big problem in the script(loosely based on a horror novel) is the mechanics and idea of his visits to his parents- is this in his head, are they ghosts, is this nefarious, is this some kind of divine cathartic opportunity? What is happening and what are its mechanics? Writer/director Andrew Haigh doesn't seem interested in answering these questions, and that's fair, this isn't trying to be a genre film but by using this genre trope the lack of clarity around it is distracting and at times undercuts or obfuscates some of the emotional truths the film is attempting to get at. With the editing there is simply too many close ups of Scott, every other scene has protracted close ups of his sad watering eyes and within those scenes there are numerous cuts of variations on the same close ups. The result is it feels as if we are investigating Adam(and by extension Scott) too much, we(the audience) are too close, it feels intrusive rather than inclusive. Off putting. We are being thrust at him when we should be him.

Mescal, Bell and Foy are all wonderful(particularly Foy, a killer as always) although sometimes the accents get a little bit thick for a US ear(we can absolutely subtitle UK films). But all three are equally constrained by the genre mechanics opacity of logic and all have relatively limited screentime in which to work.

The film looks great with rich and evocative night shots and utilizing kind of tracer or fuzzy imagery for the drug scenes as well as to evoke memory. The soundtrack is effective, the costuming and some of the set dressing(particularly when Adam is visiting his folks) subtle and works wonderfully. There's a lot to like and there's a lot that is of interest but overall the narrative itself is a bit overbearing in its bleakness. Adam is unhappy, he is stuck, and every aspect of the film works to underline this. There are transcendent moments- some of Adam's conversations with his parents are cathartic if somewhat on-the-nose, the montage of Adam and Harry falling in love is beautiful and makes you see the potential romcom that could have been- but what you are left with ultimately is a sedentary melancholy not particularly without hope but certainly not hopeful.

Not for this reviewer but for those with a higher tolerance for sorrowful whimsy.

Rent It.