Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for All of Us Strangers.
Andrew Haigh’sAll of Us Strangersis finallyavailable to watch widelyafter a very slow theatrical release.While this film has been snubbed for many awards, it is still spectacular, complimented by fantastic performances fromAndrew ScottandPaul Mescal. Based on the novelStrangersbyTaichi Yamada,All of Us Strangersprovides its own interpretation of the story by changing not only the setting but the romance as well. Its introduction of queer themes enhances the emotional journey of its central character, which concludes with a devastating revelation. At its core,All of Us Strangersis more about the experience of grief, reconciliation, and moving on than it is about a conclusive, straightforward narrative.The film naturally leaves a lot up to interpretation for the audience, delivering a heartbreaking ending that feels earned.
All of Us Strangers
A screenwriter drawn back to his childhood home enters into a fledgling relationship with a mysterious neighbor as he then discovers his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before.
What Is ‘All of Us Strangers’ About?
All of Us Strangersfocuses on Adam (Scott),a lonely screenwriter based in Londonwho is attempting to write about his long-dead parents. The film begins with a fire alarm in his apartment building. Adam evacuates, seemingly the only tenant to do so, and looks up at the empty building to see a man, Harry (Mescal), looking down at him from the window. After Adam returns to his apartment, there’s a knock at the door. Harry, a bottle of whiskey in hand, leaning on the door frame. Through their short conversation, it’s understood that Harry, above all else, doesn’t want to be alone. Adam rejects Harry’s offer to spend the night together, and he solemnly returns to his apartment. As the days go on, Adam comes to regret this decision and eventually invites Harry in, beginning a romantic relationship with him.
As this relationship blossoms, Adam is attempting to write about his parents, who both died in a car crash when Adam was a young child. Struck with writer’s block, he starts looking over mementos from his childhood, finding an old photo of his former home. It’s then that he decides to go back and visit for the first time in his adult life. There, he finds his parents, the same age as when they died, a few years younger than Adam is now and aware of the fact that they have been dead for decades. They invite him like an old friend they haven’t seen in a long time, eager to hear what their son has been up to for the past 30 years.
‘All of Us Strangers’ Is Just as Much About Romance as It Is About Grief
The entirety of the film is a back-and-forth battle in Adams' life between living happily with Harry and going back to have time and important conversations with his parents that he never got to have.It’s not all pretty, and that’s what makes it feel all the more real.These visits change him in good and bad ways. His life is suddenly revolving around the ghosts of his parents like an addiction, yet Adam is opening up more to Harry because of them, with Harry only coming to Adam’s apartment. He even tells Harry of his parents' death, a car crash that killed his father instantly, but left his mother in the hospital for some time before she died, showing how intimate their relationship has become.
Still, as he visits them more and more, his parents realize that he will waste the rest of his life there with them instead of trying to find some semblance of happiness with Harry, especially after Harry has an adverse reaction to what Adam is doing in his childhood home. It also seems that the more he visits his parents, the more Adam gets sick and weak. Both his parents and Harry mention his high temperature, and he coughs more and more throughout the runtime. When they tell him that this situation is preventing him from moving on, Adam says “It hasn’t been long enough.” To which his mother (Claire Foy) replies “It never could be, could it?” The film already sets up the idea that despite this situation providing more time, he’s still going to lose them, and nothing can stop that. He is clinging to the past, abandoning a possible future for himself.
The Talented Andrew Scott Shines in Netflix’s First ‘Ripley’ Trailer
Johnny Flynn and Dakota Fanning also star in the series, which premieres in February.
He journeys with his parents to a restaurant that they frequented when he was a child, and even orders “the family special,” despite appearing alone to other diners. In the end, the most interesting part of this culmination between a child and his parents is thathe ends up comforting them just as much as they do him. Despite protest from his mother, Adam’s father (Jamie Bell) asks him if both of their deaths were quick. Adam lies and tells them yes, despite the contradictory story he tells Harry earlier on in the film about the car crash, just to give them a final bit of solace before they move on. In their final moments, they tell Adam that they are proud that he is just still here, living. They have nothing else left to say except their love for each other. In the end, they horrifyingly relive their deaths in front of Adam’s eyes, and just before they both disappear, his mother makes him promise to try with Harry, to try and make each other’s lives a bit happier.
After losing his parents yet again, he follows the words of his mother and seeks out Harry, whose relationship with him has gotten rocky as Adam has spent more time with the ghosts of his parents. But this time he goes to Harry’s apartment instead. Immediately after entering Harry’s apartment, he discovers Harry’s dead body in his bed. We see a glimpse of his body, with the same whiskey bottle he had when Adam turned him away that first night.It’s safe to assume between the bottle being the same, and the discoloration of his hand, that Harry has been dead since the first night they met, and we already know Adam can see ghosts.
After spending a few moments with Harry’s body, someone walks into the apartment: Harry himself, again in the same clothes as his body, bottle in hand. Adam confesses that he was too scared to let Harry into his apartment, also serving as a confession that he was too scared for anything to happen between them romantically. Between the loneliness of the two of them, it’s clear Harry understands. Yet again, Adam comforts the dead, reassuring Harry that he is not in the bedroom, but instead here in front of him. Adam takes Harry back to his apartment, where they lie in bed together for the final moments of the film. Their conversation wraps up the themes of the film beautifully. Harry asks Adam if he got to say everything he wanted to his parents before they moved on. Adam, unsure, says “I don’t know, but I got to be with them.“There is constant pressure to get everything you need to say out for closure, butAll of Us Strangersproposes that simply being together is enough. The film ends with exactly that, the two of them embracing in bed (if you look closely enough, Harry is in the same position as his corpse is in his apartment), the camera pulls out, their bodies forming a singular star in a vast universe.
All of Us Strangersintentionally leaves a lot for the viewer to entertain while watching. From the exact moment Harry dies to whether the ghosts Adam is haunted by are even real or a figment of his imagination. That brings the biggest question the film suggests: Is Adam dead like his loved ones around him? While this film can be read as a straightforward ghost story aboutthe reality of grief and loneliness, the oddness of the film suggests there is more at play here. Many scenes in this film feel like a dream.This was even commented on by Andrew Scott, saying “I feel very strongly that the film is like a dream […] [Andrew Haigh’s] achievement is that he directs us towards the feeling, rather than the logic of what the feeling might be.“Haigh pushes the audience to understand the feelings Adam is experiencing, rather than presenting something that is more logical plot-wise.
From the distorted, almost scary subway sequence, to the disorienting club sequence where we first get a glimpse that there may be something more going on with Harry, this film is not afraid to push into the fantastical. For this theory, the beginning of the film is the most important, as it starts with a fire alarm. In a bit of awkward conversation following that alarm, Harry quips “One day it’ll be for real, that alarm.” Throughout the film, Adam coughs and gets increasingly hotter, something noted by his parents. It’s possible that Adam is dying, or already dead, due to a fire in his apartment. The entirety of this film could be a flash before his death, or limbo for his spirit to wander until he has enough closure to move on. It would certainly explain the more interpretive sides of the movie. The only scene that could discredit it is where he interacts with the waitress. But the beauty of this film is that it doesn’t matter, the message stays the same, and it wouldn’t mean any less if Adam were alive or dead.Haigh sums it up perfectly in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “In many ways, the whole film to me was a love letter saying, it’s okay. It’s quite hard. You’ve all been through some stuff, but you can move on from this and you can find love.“Sometimes, time spent together is all you need, even if it may never be enough.
All of Us Strangersis available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.
