Awards Season: All Of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh) & The Zone Of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

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Nominated for six BAFTA Awards, All Of Us Strangers is Andrew Haigh’s emotionally affecting adaptation of the novel Strangers by Japanese writer Taichi Yamada.

Andrew Haigh is the director of acclaimed movies like Weekend, 45 Years and Lean on Pete, but (slight spoiler) All Of Us Strangers is now my favorite of his.

It’s about Adam (Andrew Scott), who is a screenwriter living in London and working on a script about his parents, who died in a car crash thirty years ago.

One night he ventures out to Croydon, where he lived with his parents, and imagine both his and our surprise when he approaches his old house and finds that not only his parents are still alive, they haven’t aged one bit.

Sure, at this point it’s clear that we have entered the land of romantic fantasy drama, but the movie takes its premise completely serious. The encounters that follow give Adam the chance to talk to his mum (Claire Foy) and dad (Jamie Bell) like an adult. An opportunity I’m sure anyone in his position would relish. 

Meanwhile, with all this going on, Adam enters into a second important relationship. He hooks up with Harry (Paul Mescal from Aftersun), who lives in the same oddly empty apartment building.

The brash Harry is a bit of a drinker, but his relationship with the relatively shy Adam, seems to do them both good, and at one point Adam suggests that he would like to introduce Harry to his parents. Harry is dumbfounded. Hadn’t  Adam told him earlier about their tragic death? 

By this point I was kinda suspicious that the whole movie was taking place inside Adam’s head, cause he is after all a screenwriter and we could have been looking at a heightened version of his screenplay, as if the movie in his head has already come to life.

However, towards the end Haigh pulls another rabbit out of his hat, this time turning the movie on its head and making us question everything we’ve seen before. Suggesting perhaps that All Of Us Strangers is more about the twisted way both our memory and our imagination work, where elements from reality and fantasy just blend together in a great big whole where everything is possible.

But I think it’s clear that above all else, it’s a double love story. The love for one’s parents and the love for a great big romantic love. It’s also at times, a very heavy and melancholy movie. The acting by all four lead actors is absolutely top notch. Scott, Mescal, Foy and Bell are all amazing and deserving of the highest praise.

Technically, it’s also great, with superb cinematography leading the way, but all departments, including editing, art direction, sound design and music super fine. Speaking of which, the movie uses The Power of Love by Frankie Goed To Hollywood in such an effective way that over the end credits it had me in shambles. 

Five stars.