All of Us Strangers is about memories, grief, and love. It’s about reconciling the past with the present and navigating the space in between. If you missed the U.S. theatrical release in December, you can stream All of Us Strangers now on Hulu or purchase a copy from digital retailers. Written and directed by Andrew Haigh (Lean on Pete), this BAFTA- and Critic’s Choice-nominated film is visually cohesive, mood-driven, and haunting. Andrew Scott (Catherine Called Birdy) gracefully leads the small but mighty cast as Adam, a shy and self-isolating writer. His soft-spoken and emotionally restrained performance is balanced by Paul Mescal’s (Aftersun) charm as Adam’s kind and caring neighbor, Harry, and Claire Foy’s (First Man) brightness and warmth as Adam’s mom. Rounding out the cast is Jamie Bell (Snowpiercer) as Adam’s father, a somewhat reserved and traditional but undeniably kindhearted man.
L-R: Andrew Scott as Adam and Paul Mescal as Harry in ALL OF US STRANGERS. Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
These casting choices may seem a bit illogical seeing as Scott is older than the actors playing his parents. But this is no mistake. As we come to learn within the first act of the film, Adam’s parents died when he was young. But when he returns to his childhood town for a walk down memory lane, he finds his parents still living in the same home where he grew up, just as they were 30 years ago. He starts visiting them regularly, catching them up on everything that he’s done over the last three decades and reminiscing over all the good times they shared when he was a child. Meanwhile, back in “reality,” he starts developing a relationship with Harry. It soon becomes clear that Adam’s grief and the emotional trauma from his past are preventing him from living a full and meaningful life in the present.
Director Andrew Haigh on the set of ALL OF US STRANGERS. Photo by Chris Harris. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
As a film about memories and grief, All of Us Strangers certainly looks the part. Most of the scenes have a cool greyish-blue color palette that creates a somber and melancholy tone. The movie starts with a mystical and somewhat melodramatic image of Adam’s face superimposed on the London skyline, an image that pulls us into his grief and sets the stage for his loneliness. As the story continues, Haigh quite masterfully highlights Adam’s loneliness and isolation in the details of the movie. It’s no coincidence that Adam and Harry are the only residents of their newly constructed apartment building and that we never see Adam out running errands in crowded public spaces. Aside from the background actors whom we see during Adam’s frequent train rides and those present in a key scene that takes place in a club, there are hardly any extras in the film. Adam’s life in London is an isolated and ghostly one. Ironically, the actual ghost world in his childhood home is much livelier. It’s warmer, brighter, and more intimate, making his past seem comfortable and inviting. It’s no wonder he seems to prefer spending time with his dead parents to spending time in the world of the living.
B-F: Jamie Bell as Dad and Claire Foy as Mom in ALL OF US STRANGERS. Photo by Chris Harris. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Another key visual aspect of All of Us Strangers is its distinctly grainy appearance, which makes it look like a movie from the 1980s. While this vintage look reflects the fact that Adam is stuck in the past, it also gives the movie a surreal and fantastical feel. The film’s grainy appearance makes it look like a dream or a memory that has just started to fade. The effect is somewhat similar to what David Lynch achieved with Mulholland Drive (2001), which also has a dreamy and vintage look. While All of Us Strangers is a hundred times easier to follow than Mulholland Drive, the two films seem to be in the same aesthetic family and have a similar melancholy and melodramatic mood. You could even say that they’re the same type of fantasy. Much like Mulholland Drive, All of Us Strangers takes place in a dream-like space that bears a great resemblance to our own world but follows a different type of logic. Both films require viewers to accept inexplicable and illogical details without question. In the case of All of Us Strangers, the main inexplicable and illogical detail is Adam’s interactions with his dead parents.
The most intriguing (and most frustrating) thing about All of Us Strangers is that it never tells us if Adam is seeing ghosts, hallucinating, or consciously imagining conversations with his parents as a way to manage his grief. The movie throws us into this fantasy situation without explanation. Adam accepts his parents’ presence without question, and it seems that we’re supposed to accept it as well. The movie isn’t questioning Adam’s sanity or toying with the idea of an afterlife, and those issues aren’t the “point” of the movie. The “point,” if it can even be narrowed down to one simple idea, is about dealing with the reality of grief. For that reason, All of Us Strangers must represent grief as a real and physical thing in the flesh. Like with Mulholland Drive, it’s not as important for us to follow the logic of the film as it is for us to be affected by its mood and tone. If we spend too much time trying to figure out what’s really going on when Adam talks to his dead parents, we’ll miss a lot of what All of Us Strangers has to offer.
Director Andrew Haigh on the set of ALL OF US STRANGERS. Photo by Chris Harris. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Andrew Haigh didn’t construct this illogical version of reality by himself. He adapted All of Us Strangers from the 1987 novel, Strangers, by Taichi Yamada (the original Japanese title literally translates to “The Summer of Strange People.”). The movie is one of those that’s easily identifiable as an adaptation of a book. It’s slow, cumbersome at times, and observational, and there’s a lot of space between scenes. There are several slow, drawn-out moments in which the action pauses and the camera just observes, much like descriptive passages in a book. In novels, these passages are necessary to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. But with film, that job is taken care of by the camera. All of Us Strangers has an undoubtedly beautiful aesthetic, with key shots just begging to be analyzed by art and cinema theorists. But if you’re used to watching films with a steady plot (as most of us are), it can be difficult to sit still through this kind of movie. While Haigh achieves the perfect tone and mood, All of Us Strangers raises the question of whether there might be a better and more active way to translate descriptive literature into cinematic storytelling.
L-R: Director Andrew Haigh and DoP Jamie Ramsay on the set of ALL OF US STRANGERS. Photo by Chris Harris, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
In other words, All of Us Strangers is slow. The film just isn’t as concerned with plot as it is with observation. Much like the soft-spoken leading man, everything about All of Us Strangers is restrained and contained. The movie deals with deeply intense experiences (like sex, death, and drug trips), but it portrays these experiences in a very controlled and restrained way. The characters speak quietly, move slowly, and respond to each other subtly. That being said, it’s easy to miss some of the intensity and emotion that the cast so thoughtfully puts into their performances. All of Us Strangers is very technically well done, but with such a slow-moving plot, it’s not necessarily a movie that every viewer will want to return to.
Andrew Scott as Adam in ALL OF US STRANGERS. Photo by Chris Harris, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Movies can afford to be slow if the pace pays off. In All of us Strangers, the initial conclusion seems a bit too simple for such a slow buildup. Adam slowly but surely comes to terms with the death of his parents and realizes that he can’t hold on to them if he wants to move forward. It’s a very simple and heartfelt lesson, one that would benefit from a more exciting and active plot. But then, what seems to be a corny and predictable resolution unexpectedly shifts gears in the final scene, presenting a different ending that’s much more complicated and agonizingly beautiful. Like Mulholland Drive, All of Us Strangers throws a wrench in the works at the last minute, leaving us to reevaluate what we thought we had learned.
L-R: Director Andrew Haigh and actors Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal on the set of ALL OF US STRANGERS. Photo by Chris Harris. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
If you watch All of Us Strangers for the plot or characters, you’re going to end up with a glass half empty. It’s not a plot-driven film; it’s a tone-, mood-, and vibe-driven film. It makes slow and subtle movements toward an unexpected ending that, if you have the patience and attention span, is worth the wait. It’s not what you would call a traditionally “satisfactory” movie, but perhaps it fulfills its purpose (and the purpose of art in general) by giving us more questions than answers.
All of Us Strangers Digital Release Bonus Features*
- Roots of the Story Featurette
- Discovering Adam’s World Featurette
- *Bonus features vary by product and retailer
Available on digital and Hulu February 22nd, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Searchlight Pictures All of Us Strangers webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
Share this:
Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
Leave a Reply