By Courtney VanAuken
The 2023 Andrew Haigh film “All of Us Strangers” follows screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) as he reflects on his relationship with his deceased parents. He grapples with the way his parents’ absence has shaped the way he approaches relationships with other people. The film opens with Adam, alone in his apartment, forced to evacuate by a fire alarm. (Fire alarms in the middle of the night are so incredibly Donner-coded…) During this fire drill, Adam is taken aback by just how empty the apartment building is. There are virtually no occupants to evacuate.
Adam looks up, searching for any sign of life from outside the building, and notices another resident looking at him through the window. Later that night, Adam is visited by the man from the window, Harry (Paul Mescal), who drunkenly introduces himself and attempts to seduce Adam. While Adam initially turns down Harry’s advances, a second encounter with Harry in the building’s elevator leads to the beginning of their romantic involvement.
The movie not only centers around Adam and Harry’s relationship, but also the relationship between Adam and his parents, who died in a car crash on Christmas when Adam was 12 years old. The movie indulges in a moment of snarky meta-commentary when Adam acknowledges the lack of originality in the story of his parents’ death to Harry. Adam, who is developing a screenplay about his parents, rekindles the relationship with his parents when he visits his old house to find his parents still there. His mother and father, well aware of their deceased state, haven’t aged since their death. When you die, you tend to stop aging.
The movie explores themes of isolation. Adam is a character who keeps so much to himself and is only able to heal through the revelation and acceptance of personal truths to both his parents and Harry. Throughout, he mourns his parents’ death as well as the life he never got to experience with them.
The quiet nature of the film feeds into its themes of isolation. It is uncomfortable and overbearing at times — but so is loneliness. The audience can appreciate just what Harry means to Adam because, like Adam, the audience is deprived of connection throughout the movie. The only person the audience consistently has for company is Adam. Harry’s sudden presence provides a hopeful outlook for the possibilities of life that await Adam beyond what he has known.
I took the bus to the AMC 22 Waterfront after class on Thursday and went to see this movie by myself. I knew the audience would be sparse. However, I wasn’t expecting the only other audience member to have bought the ticket for the seat next to mine. I’ll admit, I was irked. The last thing I wanted to take away from this viewing experience was how uncomfortable I felt sitting next to this strange gentleman. We didn’t speak, but I was close enough to him to observe the way that the film impacted him.
The film touches on things that I have never experienced. While I empathize with Adam and his plight, I was unable to fully relate to Adam’s experience with coming out to his mother and father and mourning his parents. While the film didn’t resonate with me personally, I appreciate the way “All of Us Strangers” gives space to an experience that has not always been properly represented in media, and can provide healing for those who relate to Adam and his experiences.
That being said, Adam constantly looks out of windows. If there is a window, Adam is sure to be looking out of it. He spends so much time gazing out of windows and resolving himself to absolute angst that at times, the movie felt like an hour-and-45-minute artsy cologne commercial. Thematically, there is something to be recognized in that, but also, every window shot had me praying he would jump through it.
The shots in the movie were all beautifully framed. One of the first shots of the film captures the sunrise as it sets the London city skyline ablaze. The camera also manages to capture the dynamic between Adam and Harry in a way that avoids fetishizing their relationship. The camera lingers on intimate and meaningful moments of connection in a way that conveys the importance of what the two men mean to each other.
The film is visually stunning. However, the repetitive, lingering nature of the camera shots makes certain moments both visually boring and overbearing. Andrew Scott is an undeniable Adonis, but the camera lingers on him in a way that feels unjustified and untrue to the story. The gaze directed towards Scott is constant. If it isn’t us as an audience looking at Andrew Scott, it’s us looking at Paul Mescal, who is looking at Andrew Scott. The film’s beauty is explicit, which at times is too in-your-face. Audiences often hope to discover beauty for themselves rather than have its presence placed in front of them on a silver platter. There is something so exciting about the initial realization of beauty. Beauty is something that doesn’t need to be pointed out; it emerges quietly and slowly infects everything that encounters it.
“All of Us Strangers” raises many questions for the audience, most about what it means to fully experience a person. When does a person change from a stranger to something more? I only found myself wishing that there were more answers. The movie is deeply grounded in reflection and while the pacing was sedate and strange, I recognize the value in taking time to fully absorb the nature of the film and questions presented to the audience. The countless Andrew Scott window shots felt slightly excessive, though.
As I rode back from AMC on the 61D, I couldn’t help but notice how unified in solitude the bus passengers were. And then I got back to Donner and was greeted with a fire alarm test. I will admit, it was nice to step away from the world of “All of Us Strangers,” which is so rooted in dread, isolation, and yearning for what you cannot have. Humans share the common desire to know and be known by others, this is something that felt very true to the world of the film. That afternoon, I reflected on just how much people mean to each other and how important it is to facilitate and curate community. God knows if I didn’t have such wonderful company, I would spend a lot of time looking out windows too.
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