John Lithgow and Alfred Molina might end being one of the first couple of actors to be nominated for the same movie in quite a while. Both give heartfelt performances in a movie that dares to confront the issues of love, loneliness, and family relationships in a very direct and honest manner.
A couple of longtime partners decide to tie the knot, and you'd think in this modern and liberated times, they would only look forward to a happy ending. Well, it's not quite that way, and that's just the beginning of a few months of stress, sadness, loneliness, and quite an emotional ordeal for all involved. As they are separated because they can't afford a place to live anymore. Ben must go and live with his nephew, and though this family to do pretty well, we have problems with personal space, privacy, and just in the simple matter that it does take a while to get used to new people. Relationships are strained, and it doesn't take long before people might say things they will regret. This is the part of the film where Lithgow does great work while interacting with the underrated Marisa Tomei, who must keep her frustrations in check because she's afraid to add more unhappiness to an already messy situation.
She has a teenager who barely speaks to her, and a husband who lives more for his business than his family. Theirs is probably typical of what modern couples go through because we don't get the sense he's cheating, just overwhelmed by his job obligations. He's totally unaware of the strain their guest brings to the family, and in addition to that he begins to suspect something might be going on with his son's relationship with his "only friend".
On the other side of town is Ben's spouse, and Molina shines in a more restrained performance. He plays after all, a man who has learned to live with himself and has probably never really said much, regardless of the situation. After all, Ben seems to be the more dynamic partner, and he's gone away, and Molina is perfect at showing how devastating this separation is for both. Molina must deal with being the invisible guest syndrome. His friends go on with their lives, but they are young, kind, and happy, not minding him, and this is not quite what Molina needs because he feels abandoned and a burden.
We see the couple try to overcome their financial problems, but it appears that New York is after all a tough place for even young ones, and we have a couple of old men in their 60's and 70's, with decaying health, barely any positive prospects, and who have been dealt a really bad deal in the sale of their property.
The film depicts the various stages of the way things go from bliss to utter sadness. In the end, life has to go on, and the ending is bittersweet, giving you hope that nothing can stay at its lowest point forever, and it works because we have actors like Molina and Lithgow who can say so much with their eyes. We learn from happiness, to anger, to frustration, to despair, to hope, to the fact that life is way more than we expect, and that love is indeed a strange and wonderful emotion.
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