Loving (2016, PG-13)

The original plan had been to see this movie opening weekend back at the start of November.  It seemed fitting to go to the theater to watch a true story about a landmark Supreme Court battle against anti-miscegenation laws on the same weekend that a blockbuster comic-book movie featuring a major whitewashed character came out.  All well and good… except Loving wasn’t in my local theater, or even any semi-close non-local theater, on opening weekend.  I didn’t see the other film, but I couldn’t see Loving until recently, when it finally came to town.

In 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving marry in Washington, D.C. before returning to their hometown in rural Virginia.  According to the laws of Virginia, however, a white man and a Black woman aren’t simply banned from getting married within state lines; they’re banned from being married as well.  The couple are arrested and forced out of the state, away from their families and the only homes they’ve known.  In a years-long battle merely to live and love where they choose, the Lovings become somewhat reluctant faces of interracial marriage as their case makes it all the way to the Supreme Court.

What really interests me in this movie is how little it feels like a traditional civil rights film.  Richard and Mildred go against the law in order to marry, but in doing so, they don’t think of themselves as willfully challenging the law.  They don’t view themselves as fighters or crusaders.  They simply love each other and want to do so as husband and wife, not setting out to topple any system.  When Mildred’s family ask why they went up to D.C. to get married, she just comments that Richard thought it’d be “easier” there, and when the ACLU approaches them with eyes on the Supreme Court, Richard asks if they can’t just explain to the judge that they “won’t bother anybody.”  While they ultimately realize they don’t want to accept being told where they can or can’t live, and they come to understand that the fight isn’t just for them but for every family like theirs, all they really want is that very fundamental, basic thing:  to be together.  It serves as a good reminder when we look at different social justice issues that are debated today.  When a trans person wishes to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, for example, they’re not doing it to “be political.”  They’re not “making a statement” or “shoving their beliefs” down anyone’s throat.  They just want themselves, and others, to live their lives with the same dignity afforded to everyone else.

Keeping the central focus so tight and personal makes for an often-quiet, gentle film.  The biggest moments come in small scenes, like how proudly Richard hangs his and Mildred’s marriage license on their bedroom wall or the shy reticence in Mildred’s voice when she first takes a call from the ACLU.  Joel Edgerton and Oscar-nominated Ruth Negga play their roles softly and compassionately.  Their chemistry together is so warm, and their understated reactions to the injustices they’re facing somehow highlights those injustices even more starkly.  Michael Shannon also appears in the film, turning in a good performance in his brief role as a photographer sympathetic to the cause.

Warnings

Thematic elements and threats of violence.