Film Review - Loving (2016) "The Soft Voices of 'Loving' Are a Timely Reminder Of Change"

The Soft Voices of Loving Are a Timely Reminder Of Change

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            There is nothing at all exciting about Richard and Mildred Loving. They are a married Virginia couple who raise three children.  Richard (Joel Edgerton) works as a brick layer and fixes the family car, while Mildred (Ruth Negga) deftly cares for their home.  They eat with their extended family.  They laugh with friends.  They watch The Andy Griffith Show.

            If the Lovings were married today, a film of their lives would be tedious and dull, but they were not married in the times we live in.  They lived in 1960’s Virginia and Richard, a white man, broke a miscegenation law set in 1691 when he married Mildred, a black woman, who was pregnant with their first child. 

            The film written and directed by Jeff Nichols follows the first—and arguably the most important—9 years of the Lovings’ marriage.  Shortly after being married in Washington D.C., the sheriff and his deputies arrest the Lovings in the middle of the night (after what appears to be an illegal breaking and entering).  Their case is sent all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States; all the while the family is forced to live in fear of the law and their own neighbors.

            This film is unapologetically sparse on dialogue.  In fact the most the audience hears out of Mr. Edgerton is a few hushed sentences at a time.  Mr. Nichols creates a world that looks like your grandparent’s old photographs—full of familiar, yet other worldly charm.  While other characters are loud and at times physically aggressive, the Lovings hold a quiet reserve that draws the audience to them.  Not a punch is thrown—even when Richard’s black friend confronts him about how Richard knows what it feels like “to be black now.” Every significant moment of this film is accomplished with a shy stare, yet it is completely without timidity.  Mr. Edgerton and Ms. Negga are so telling in their looks toward their ridiculers, toward their lawyers, and even toward each other, that the audience is never without understanding of what Richard and Mildred are thinking.

            Very rarely does an audience see a timelier and more far reaching film.  The Lovings’ story goes beyond 1960s Virginia and far beyond the past’s controversy with interracial marriage.  In a divisive time such as now, with the threat of returning to times that some feel were great and others feel were oppressive, Mr. Nichols bring Richard and Mildred’s story to us to say that we should not be looking back towards the past as a golden memory, arguing that not all laws that are on the books were devised by men who wanted equality. Loving shows us that the only way to make progress is to look forward and, yes, the irony of using a film about a couple from over 70 years ago to illustrate the need to look to the future is not lost on this writer.

            Many people will turn away from this movie because there are no great speeches—no declarations of outrage. But in a world that is full of deafening voices being raised for a cause, Loving’s poised softness—the Loving’s tender and graceful quiet—may be the strongest message for equality of our time.

Title: Loving

Release date: 4 November 2016

Director: Jeff Nichols

Writers: Jeff Nichols

Stars: Richard Edgerton, Ruth Negga

Rating: PG – 13

Category: Drama, Romance

Run Time: 2 hours 3 minutes




P.S.  
            This is not included in my review, but during the film, there is a scene when Time Magazine photographer Grey Villet (played by Man of Steel's Michael Shannon) comes to take pictures of the couple.  

            Here is the link to see the real pictures from the real Grey Villet: Grey Villet Photos for Time Magazine