Loving is a quiet film but a powerful and uplifting one – an intimate domestic drama in which the protagonists themselves hardly seem to notice their own historical roles.
There’s no denying it’s a film built around the performances and here both Edgerton (subdued, monosyllabic) and Negga (who picked up an Oscar nomination for the film) excel without the need for grandstanding speeches or false heroics.
The Irish-Ethiopian actor gives an Oscar-worthy performance in Jeff Nichols’ film about the effects of Jim Crow racism on a mixed-race couple in 1950s Virginia.
Loving is low-key in the way it lets the facts speak for themselves but both Joel Edgerton and Best Actress Oscar nominee Ruth Negga create convincing, deeply felt portraits of ordinary people swept away by extraordinary events.
Less a ‘civil rights drama’ than a tender portrait of a marriage suffering unimaginable stress, Loving soars thanks to its narrative approach and career-best performances from Negga and Edgerton.
Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton star as an interracial couple in 1950s Virginia in Jeff Nichols’s wonderful true-life drama.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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