Love is Strange -a charming Gay Film Spoilers!

I saw this film recently and enjoyed it very much.  It is a simple story of an aging gay couple, one English, the other American, who live together in New York.  Al Molina’s character teaches music; John Lithgow’s character is an artist. When after a long relationship, they get married, things start to unravel.  Molina is let go from his job, in a Catholic school, who seemed to have accepted him while he was gay but drew the line at his getting married.  Then their finances take a turn for the worse.   They lose their apartment and have to ask for help from family and friends, to find somewhere to live.  They end up living in different apartments, with friends or relatives and feeling out of place and unwanted and lonely.

They try to spend time together and to resolve the problems, but time is against them. By the time they find a place where they can be together Lithgow, the older of the 2, has developed serious health problems and dies.

There is a good deal of sadness in the tale, but also happiness.  They never stop loving each other and try to find ways to combat the problems that have beset them.  And the story, while it takes note of the “gay issue” does not blame “Society” for all their problems. Some of the loneliness and problems are related to the fact that they are not that well off and aging.  Lithgow’s ill health could be the fate of any older man with a wife…and their financial problems are not entirely to do with Molina’s losing his job because he made his gay marriage public...It’s also that they are not good at managing money.  And their loneliness is the same as for a heterosexual couple who have had to separate for financial reasons… Both of them feel out of place with younger friends and relatives, however kindly they are….
There are references to gay issues, to the struggle for gay rights, but they are lightly touched on.  I would recommend the film to anyone who enjoys a good story about 2 people in love