All of Us Strangers: Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal shine in this beautiful queer drama about the ghosts of childhood and lost connections

The hype around English director Andrew Haigh’s upcoming film, All of Us Strangers, has surpassed all expectations… though with two of Ireland’s biggest stars at its helm, is it really any surprise? 

Adapted by Haigh from the Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, the movie stars Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal as unlikely lovers, brought together by a chance encounter in their near-vacant high-rise apartment block in contemporary London.

Adam, a screenwriter, is currently working on a script – one based on his own life. The subject matter is heavy, given that both of his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) died in a car crash on Christmas Day when he was just 11 years old.  

Plagued by writer’s block, Adam seems unable to progress the story and is shown in various states of procrastination – watching daytime TV, eating biscuits, staring out the window and revisiting the music of the time (the soundtrack in this film is phenomenal – the Christmas tree scene stands out as a particular favourite). Harry’s arrival into his life is both a distraction and a way forward, prompting him to open up a box of childhood mementoes and pull out old memories to help him on his journey – physical and metaphorical. 

A spontaneous train journey out to his old home in Croydon leads him back to his parents who, surprisingly, are home – preserved exactly as he remembers them in his youth. Both Foy and Bell look significantly younger than their now 40-something-year-old son. Are they ghosts? Figments of his imagination? Did he really go to Croydon or is this all in his head? I’ll leave you to decide, but fundamentally, All of Us Strangers is a character study. The hero’s journey is internal and the film’s central tenets hinge on his reconnecting with the past. 

The plot leans towards sentimental, punctuated by melancholy sweetness. Adam’s recollection of things is patchy in parts but such is the nature of memory. This journey to the past allows him to have conversations he’s long wished he could have – he tells his parents he’s gay, after which his mother probes him on “that horrible disease” (by which she means the AIDS epidemic). His father apologises for never going into his room while he was crying. It’s human nature to remember the dead through rose-tinted glasses, which Adam is also guilty of, but his parents aren’t perfect either and the result is a potent and moving meditation on grief and loneliness.

The scenes between Scott and Mescal – two lost, wandering souls – are amongst the most evocative. The tenderness they bring to the relationship is something that can’t be taught, indicative of the level of talent they bring to the table. 

The two are connected by an invisible thread throughout, the true weight of which we only understand at the end. This is a world of Adam’s own making, but he moves from guarded recluse to welcoming Harry inside. It’s beautiful and haunting in equal measure – like a childhood melody your mother used to soothe your nightmares, comforting but with its own complex associations.

This movie is utterly devastating and yet inexplicably healing too. It’s going to break your heart, best bring the tissues.

All of Us Strangers opens in Irish cinemas nationwide on January 26.

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