Loving (2016)

Fantastic!

Captivating movie !

Absolutely the worst movie.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

C-grade actor Joel Edgerton is the reason I skipped this limited movie; couldn't correlate him as Mr Loving in The Loving 2011 documentary by director Nancy Buirski. Excellence highlights mediocrity.

There are so many problems with this movie. What a waste of a good story! They must have loved each other very deeply for them to risk everything and defy society. Yet, in this movie, there is no chemistry between the two leads. It's so miscast, it's hard to imagine they even like each other. I understand the focus on this movie is the couple and not the case. Yet, they made an impact at all precisely because of the landmark case. By barely skimming the Supreme Court case, it lost the point of the story. And the pacing is so slow, one could take naps between changing scenes without missing anything. It made the dramatic story very boring. What a shame! What a waste of a good story!

If anyone's ever curious why films based on real life events have to be dramatized, this film right here is why. It was a sweet film, with quiet understated performances, but not a compelling film to watch. The performances certainly didn't stand out from either Egerton or Negga. Her Oscar nod baffles me, besides the fact that she was in a politically correct film. I can't even think of a ten line movie review, this film was so underwhelming. Of course your heart goes out to the loving's and what they had to go through, but there had to have been a more compelling way to tell the story. It was very hard to keep my attention. My advice is read up on the case and skip the movie. You'll lose less of your life that way.

Joel Edgerton and Ruth Neggia give restrained performances in this film dealing with inter-racial marriage and bigotry and that's part of the problem here. Edgerton talks as if he has marbles in his mouth and Neggia's character of Mildred comes off much too nonchalant with the tremendous problem the inter-racially married couple face.Even when their case ultimately goes to the Supreme Court, we just hear the very generalized opening arguments by the Loving's attorneys. Even when the court reaches its decision, there is very little excitement upon the married couple's response.Am amazed that Ruth Neggia was nominated for a best actress Oscar and after seeing the film and her rather lackluster performance, there is no surprise that she lost.Even the racist police officers come off as rather blase here.