Loving

Focus Features

            Love against all odds is the most horrifying, and often heart wrenching, of genre conventions. To know as a society that this not only happened to the Lovings, but generations upon generations of mixed families, is absolutely grotesque. Love, the easiest and yet least manageable of human emotions, shouldn’t be monitored and legislated, but it was, and is still today. What this film really tries to make us understand, through subtle direction and a thoughtful screenplay by Jeff Nichols, is that the Lovings were a normal couple who just wanted to be left alone.

      The story follows the mixed race couple of Richard (Edgerton) and Mildred (Negga) right before their engagement in 1958, as they realize they will soon have a child. Richard is white, and Mildred is black, and in Virginia it is illegal for them to marry. They go to Washington DC to join their union, but when they come home they are roughed up in the night and thrown in jail. Miscegenation laws were common then, and the argument lay in antiquated, racist ideals about children, marriage, and segregation. Though they wanted nothing more than for their children to run through open fields, and have a simple life all together, they were thwarted time and again, and eventually took to the courts.

Credit: Estate of Grey Villet

       This is a film that hinges on subtlety. Though it could have reached to the far ends of the term melodramatic, there isn’t any trace of melodrama to the film. The story centers on the modest whims and wants of Richard and Mildred, who want to work, raise their children, and simply be. Edgerton gives the most poignant performance of his career, though most of the film sees him blank faced and confused at the antics of American society at large. The emotional impact of his eventual emotional breakage in the face of judicial aggression is just the right amount of heartbreaking. I found myself tearing up throughout the film, especially because Edgerton and Negga assuredly sell the idea that they are humble, yet beatific creatures. Negga gives a thoughtful turn as Mildred Loving, maternal and kind, wanting to please her husband and yet unwilling to be bullied into staying out of Virginia, her homeland and birthright.

            This film has already gained several awards nominations, the most admired being the two Golden Globes for Best Actor and Actress for Edgerton and Negga. Truly, this is a film that will be on the horizon this Oscars’ season. I dearly hope that Negga will not be the only woman of color nominated this year, because there are other incredible films for consideration, like “Fences,” and “Moonlight.” Still, Negga deserves that honor for the amazing emotional depth of her performance. If you want to watch an awards contender with has heart, choose this film. You may cry, but it will be for life’s pursuit of happiness, and not the bitterness of defeat.