Is it a dream?
ALL OF US STRANGERS has a dream like quality, a reverie of nostalgia, an aching yearning permeating the narrative.
Andrew Scott plays Adam, living in a London tower block struggling with writer’s block, inspiration stagnant, imagination as blank as the page before him. He’s trying to construct a screenplay about his childhood.
His past haunts him to the point that he conjures his long dead parents, they materialise, living in the house he grew up in. They are the same age as when they died, which is younger than he is now.
They occupy the space and time that they lived, amazed at the revelations Adam brings to their notice, of how times have changed, how society has changed. Mum, especially, finds old prejudices hard to jettison, while Dad has a more sympathetic and empathetic approach.
Claire Foy and Jamie Bell as deceased Mum and Dad are bloody brilliant, flesh and blood phantoms super natural rather than supernatural.
While enjoying the company of his ghost parents, Adam begins a relationship with Harry played by Paul Mescal. Tentative at first, it appears more present tense, but could this also be a figment of the past. Or a projection of the future? Fact or fiction?
Writer director Andrew Haigh plays with chronology with controlled abandon, concocting an intrigue whilst balancing a wistful, emotional journey for Adam and for audiences.
ALL OF US STRANGERS dream like quality is enhanced by Jamie D. Ramsay’s superb cinematography and production design by Sarah Finlay.
