If copying yourself is style, as Alfred Hitchcock coined the phrase, now his compatriot, the British Andrew Haigh, reinforces it.
It premiered in 2011 Weekend, the story of a young gay man who lived in a mansion and was looking for some kind of… human connection. A dozen years later, the director returns to a nearly empty luxury apartment block in London.
What if Weekendwhich was a bit darkly discursive and became a classic of gay cinema, We are all strangers respects the same parameters.
Now the protagonist is Adam (Andrea ScottFrom Bag of fleas AND Oslo) a bit of a boring guy. He’s a screenwriter who wants to write about his family, but instead of sitting in front of his notebook more regularly, he prefers to stay and watch TV and eat junk food late into the night.
Andrew Scott is Adam, who lives alone in a virtually empty building in London. Disney photosUntil a chance meeting, yes, as it happened to Weekend– change your existence. It’s Harry (Paul Mescal, nominated last year for an Oscar as leading actor). After sunand this year we will see him in the role of Lucius Gladiator 2), an unknown person who is said to be the only other inhabitant of the building. After several flirtations, sex and romance arrive, and Adam finally sets a goal to write about his family.
It’s not easy: his parents died in a car accident when he was 12 years old.
So when he visits the house where he lived, which is empty, he meets Dad and Mom (Jamie Bell, from Billy Elliotand Claire Foy, Queen Elizabeth in the first two seasons of The crown). The surprise that this first meeting causes in the viewer is great, because the actor Andrew Scott, the son, is at least 10 years older than Bell and Foy.
Paul Mescal is Harry. He was nominated for an Oscar last year for “Aftersun” and we will see him in “Gladiator 2”.Age doesn’t matter and yes, we are faced with another case of someone seeing dead people.
Adam relates to his parents, who have not heard from him since his death. Mum didn’t know he was gay, dad half-guessed it.
We are all strangers It’s not a horror film at all, even if it plays with that ghostly presence. And also with the never-ending pain of that adolescent child who became an adult. Because Adam’s parents are like they’re waiting for their son to come home. We will discover Adam’s life through questions from his parents, who want to know what happened in his life, how he grew up and his story.
Jamie Bell, the actor who was “Billy Elliot” as a child, plays Adam’s father, who is dead like his mother.The other leg is Harry, and from his inquiries and Adam’s answers the portrait of this orphaned, lonely and adrift man is built. He can’t get rid of the pain for his parents and feels that this empty existence, living in the city, has its reasons for him.
But in the film it sometimes seems that the director distances himself from Adam, who is more immersed in the ghostly world than the real one. The performances of the four interpreters are extremely precious.
“We are all strangers”
Drama. United Kingdom, 2023. Original title: “All of us strangers”. 106′, SAM 16. From: Andrew Haigh. With: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy. Rooms: Cinemark Palermo, Hoyts Unicenter, Cinépolis Recoleta and Pilar, Showcase Belgrano and Norcenter.
Source: Clarin
