Loving (2016)

Based on a true story: In rural Virginia in 1958, Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga) are an inter-racial couple who live in a state where inter-racial marriages are illegal. They live through personal struggles while eventually getting legal help for their plight.Director Jeff Nichols has created a fine film in that every scene has a certain edge - not just those including nasty law enforcers but even the day-to-day activities of the couple and their respective families. He is greatly assisted by Edgerton and Negga who not only give strong individual performances but they also share a great chemistry together. They are the essence of the film. Edgerton shows a quiet desperation in his face as he quietly goes about his business. Negga displays a dignity in her shyness and even shows a comical impishness in her enjoyment of media attention in the second half. Another fascination is that the two main players of this film are both introverts who are fully able to draw in the viewer - a rarity in a medium that is usually more fascinated with extroverts."Loving" is a fine film overall though it has more edge in its first half. The second half is easily comparable to other recent films ("Selma", "The Butler") involving U.S. civil rights battles in the 1960s. As the bar continues to get higher in this genre, it gets more difficult to surpass it. But "Loving" certainly meets it.In the second half, there are occasional references to "the right to marriage" without being specific. It makes one wonder if the phrase is referring to another civil rights battle on marriage that would take place a half-century later.

The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a couple whose arrest for interracial marriage in 1960s Virginia began a legal battle that would end with the Supreme Court's historic 1967 decision. Loving has it's flaws for sure but it's way better than reviews say in my opinion. Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton are fantastic and they have a really good chemistry together plus it's just sad seeing such a lovely couple going threw hell and back. Now the film as i said isn't perfect it misses some historical parts, it drags sometimes and i just wish that Edgerton's character could fight back sometimes. Michael Shannon also has a cameo as a photographer for LIFE and it's just a simple role really but still quite shocking seeing him. Overall the movie is dramatic, the leads are really good and it does touch in certain parts but it's not as good as it maybe it could be? (8/10)

The sad, shameful story of Loving comes undiluted from an American past we consistently fail to acknowledge. In 1958 Richard Loving (Edgerton), a white resident of Caroline County, Virginia wedded his young love Mildred Jeter (Negga) a colored woman. Subsequently, the couple was arrested for violating Virginia's miscegenation law, and given the choice to either leaving the state or serving a year in jail. "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents," the judge wrote. "The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."Unsurprisingly, Loving stands against the above sentiment with uncommon poise and magnanimity. By virtue of existing and existing at a time when racial relations in America seem to be headed backwards, Loving can be considered a valiant parable. Upon further research one can also appreciate the film's historical accuracy; Mildred Loving did in- fact mail Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the Loving case itself was not a purposeful cause by activists, but rather a couple who naively thought the state would turn a blind eye to their love.Yet somewhere in between Loving's pre-production and post-production all semblance of enthusiasm, charisma, and charm was lost. Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, otherwise accomplished actors, stumble through scene to scene pigeon-toed; understating everything from cautious late-night drives to the struggle of maintaining an engine block. Of course the gamble to understate everything could have worked, if we were given room to breathe. But sadly the editing is too coarse to allow our able cast to carry the scene through. It's as if director Jeff Nichols didn't have faith that audience members would have patience so he tried to have it both ways – deliberate pace; snappy editing.What's left in the scattershot is just gravitas – a film so confident in its message that it doesn't feel the need to back up its careful, albeit beautiful compositions with any real drama. Loving's complete lack of urgency follows the film like a cipher, disabling it from becoming anything more than a slow-paced drudge. Perhaps I'm more speaking to the politics of the day but the contents of this film deserves a bullhorn not a whisper.

It's difficult to know where to begin with a film like this. It took nearly 60 years for someone to do this so I guess I would say that at least they took the time to get it right. It is an absolute work of art. And that deserves a lot of attention. But it's also, and primarily, a story about real people and the facts surrounding their lives. Specifically, their marriage. Marriage and raising children is difficult enough; just imagine what it would be like if someone like, say a policeman, stormed 300 years worth of systemic racism, segregation, and slavery, through it. Where this film succeeds so well is that it stays away from that larger picture, and that societal cauldron, and keeps the film focused on the two people at its center. They weren't worldly people. They weren't book smart. And their understanding of the world around them was simple enough to account only for the feelings they had for one another and not the artificial laws that would come to govern them for most of their marriage. I guess I would say that, ultimately, this film brings us into what felt like the real lives of Richard and Mildred Loving. The documentary on which this film is based, "The Loving Story" by Nancy Buriski, is a solid depiction of the actual characters. And Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga are outstanding as the Lovings. Director/screenwriter, Jeff Nichols, keeps the story within the confines of the personal with barely a page of written dialogue for the lead actors. The quietness of their relationship says more than they, or anyone else, could say about them. And there is just enough from the peripheral characters for the viewer to feel the crushing fist of institutionalized racism as they did. I loved this film. The story is compelling and needed to be told from the perspective of its main characters and that was done very well here. The marriage of Richard and Mildred Loving was at the epicenter of one of the most consequential Supreme Court rulings of the 20th Century. A ruling that was unanimous during a time, unlike today, when that was actually possible. The strength of this film is in the touching scenes between the Lovings. Scenes of simplicity like putting your children to bed and then going off to your bedroom at the end of a long day. Richard's daily life was punctuated with monotonous hours as a brick layer where things are predictable and the lines are straight. That was something that he could understand and was comfortable with. Ruth's was one of children and home. That, and one another, was all they wanted. And all they needed. In 1967 the Supreme Court ruled that they should be left to the peace and comfort of a private life. And 60 years later someone made a terrific movie about them. Which is a lot better than not ever making it at all.