Loving  3.0

        “Loving” is the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving who were ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary situation. The Lovings were married in Washington, DC in 1958, although they lived in rural Virginia. No one would have noticed or cared, except for the fact that Richard was white and Mildred was Black. At the time, a mixed marriage was a felony in the state of Virginia. The plot is based on what happened next in their lives.

Joel Edgerton portrays Richard. He's a bricklayer, and, apparently, a very good one. He always has work. Ruth Negga plays Mildred. Mildred is a homebody, who does her job very well, and turns out to be the wiser of the two.

As a compelling human interest story, the movie is exceptional. As a film narrative,  the picture is unusually low key and somewhat plodding  with very little drama to heighten the importance of a Supreme Court decision ruling that laws prohibiting mixed race marriages were unconstitutional . The decision was nothing short of landmark when issued in 1967, a full nine years after the ordeal began for Richard and Mildred Loving. Even so, Joel Edgarton and Ruth Negga deliver sensitive portrayals as the interracial mixed couple, jailed for the audacity of being married and living in Virginia.

That being said, I personally was underwhelmed by the movie. I was expecting more sizzle but as it turns out that is not what the Director wanted. He wanted this to be a simple but genuine story about 2 people in love who just wanted to be left alone to live their lives. The movie’s emphasis was on the love story with the dramatics left out.

Clark