Since losing both my parents two years ago, I have often thought about what it would be like if I could have a frank conversation with them about their lives, their dreams, their successes and their regrets. I’d want to understand their motivations; why they made the choices they made. I doubt they would have been open to having such a talk while they were alive. My parents were not the type to discuss one’s feelings, especially those that cling so close to the bone, so communing with the dead would be my only option. The film ALL OF US STRANGERS follows a somewhat similar concept except in this case, Adam, the story’s protagonist, lost his parents in a tragic accident just before his 12^th birthday. Now, as an adult, he has a few things he wants them to know that he couldn’t tell them when he was a child.

Adam (Andrew Scott, 1917; SPECTRE; TV’s FLEABAG) is a screenwriter living in London. One day while working on a script that draws upon his past, he comes across a photo of his parents’ house in suburban Croydon. He decides to go back there to check it out and, when he rings the doorbell, his mother (played by Claire Foy, THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN; THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB; TV’s THE CROWN) answers the door. She and Adam’s father (played by Jamie Bell, ROCKETMAN; FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL) haven’t aged a day since they died some 30 years earlier. Later, back in his flat, Harry (Paul Mescal (AFTERSUN), a resident in Adam’s nearly-empty building, rings Adam’s doorbell. He’s drunk and he’s looking for a connection with someone, anyone.

Based on the 1987 Japanese novel, “Strangers” by Taichi Yamada/山田 太一, ALL OF US STRANGERS is a powerful examination of loss and loneliness. Writer-director Andrew Haigh (LEAN ON PETE) improves upon Yamada’s work by writing Adam as gay (Yamada’s character was divorced), his sexual identity being something that Adam never had a chance to discuss with his parents when they were alive. He may not have even had the language to articulate it back then. Mum’s response, and Dad’s too, to the news are probably not what Adam expects and these conversations don’t seem to offer him much in the way of healing. Instead, they just make him sadder over what never was and never could be. Fortunately, Adam is able to find that connection and understanding that he’s yearning for in Harry.

Get a box of Kleenex ready when you sit down to watch this film because you’re going to need it. ALL OF US STRANGERS is an emotional plunge into the deep end of unresolved sorrow. Scott, in arguably his biggest film role yet in his career, delivers a stellar performance and it’s unfortunate that he was overlooked for both a BAFTA and an Oscar. The actor’s eyes speak volumes about Adam’s loneliness. Though Adam has learned to sublimate his emotions, his eyes don’t lie. Foy and Bell’s performances are beautifully muted too, reflecting a tenderness and compassion that we hope their characters had (but probably didn’t) when they were alive. There’s a scene where Adam, wearing adult-sized kids’ pyjamas, crawls into bed with them. It’s amusing and touching yet highly relatable. Mescal, who did receive a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA nomination, presents Harry as a rough-around-the-edges mix of chaos and passion, both of which are absent in Adam’s buttoned-up world, but he, too, harbours a sea of sadness over the loneliness he feels in his life. Though they may seem like an unlikely couple, Harry and Adam are able to offer each other what they are sorely missing. The film’s devastating closing scene underscores their need to be seen and understood for who they are.

ALL OF US STRANGERS is streaming on now Hulu and Disney+. Had I watched it in 2023, it would have made my list of favourite films of the year. Yes, it’s sad but it’s fabulous.

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