Jim3k
12-03-2016, 12:16 AM
OK. All the lawyers here know the Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia. It held that interracial marriage was a fundamental right and struck down Virginia’s miscegenation laws. Of course that ruling became law everywhere and later became the basis for gay marriage. But enough of the case and its strikingly large impact.
This is about the movie. And about the two principal actors. Joel Edgerton? I didn’t recognize the name nor the face. In the movie he is a blonde crew cut bricklayer with an eye to street drag racing. His appearance reminded me of Roger Maris. He could not have been a more salt-of-the earth laborer, slowly rising from the poverty of eastern Virginia. Wait. This is the dude who I saw who has played in Gatsby (as Tom Buchanan), Zero Dark Thirty, and in two Star Wars films (Owen Lars)? Wow.
He’s a true movie chameleon who I never noticed before. I think Loving can be criticized for being slow and actionless. And it is. But Edgerton owns this movie in a truly understated way. Richard Loving’s lack of education and inability to see much beyond his trowel and level is presented remarkably by Edgerton. An honorable, hard-working white po’ boy is what you get. Stolid.
But that would be giving short shrift to the second player, Ruth Negga, who plays Loving’s African-American wife Mildred. Her understated dignity is powerfully communicated. Like Edgerton, Negga was not known to me. Yup—Imdb shows she has 37 credits, much of which are TV series that I never watched. I must have missed something I would have enjoyed. Anyway she has Mildred wake up to the unfairness of this particular Jim Crow law. Mildred, too is uneducated, but she has an innate intelligence and when given the chance to rectify the Virginia law, she, through Negga, does it.
They have children to raise in an unfair society. They choose to confront the unfairness so their children can live in a better place. Not necessarily a color-blind country, but simple, low sights aimed at a color-blind rural Virginia. Home. In peace.
At bottom, this is a family love story. And these two actors persuade the audience to love their characters. When you leave, you will understand their situation and their journey far better than any picture the media of the day ever offered to us at the time.
This is about the movie. And about the two principal actors. Joel Edgerton? I didn’t recognize the name nor the face. In the movie he is a blonde crew cut bricklayer with an eye to street drag racing. His appearance reminded me of Roger Maris. He could not have been a more salt-of-the earth laborer, slowly rising from the poverty of eastern Virginia. Wait. This is the dude who I saw who has played in Gatsby (as Tom Buchanan), Zero Dark Thirty, and in two Star Wars films (Owen Lars)? Wow.
He’s a true movie chameleon who I never noticed before. I think Loving can be criticized for being slow and actionless. And it is. But Edgerton owns this movie in a truly understated way. Richard Loving’s lack of education and inability to see much beyond his trowel and level is presented remarkably by Edgerton. An honorable, hard-working white po’ boy is what you get. Stolid.
But that would be giving short shrift to the second player, Ruth Negga, who plays Loving’s African-American wife Mildred. Her understated dignity is powerfully communicated. Like Edgerton, Negga was not known to me. Yup—Imdb shows she has 37 credits, much of which are TV series that I never watched. I must have missed something I would have enjoyed. Anyway she has Mildred wake up to the unfairness of this particular Jim Crow law. Mildred, too is uneducated, but she has an innate intelligence and when given the chance to rectify the Virginia law, she, through Negga, does it.
They have children to raise in an unfair society. They choose to confront the unfairness so their children can live in a better place. Not necessarily a color-blind country, but simple, low sights aimed at a color-blind rural Virginia. Home. In peace.
At bottom, this is a family love story. And these two actors persuade the audience to love their characters. When you leave, you will understand their situation and their journey far better than any picture the media of the day ever offered to us at the time.