Andrew Haigh writes and directs the second feature-length adaptation of Taichi Yamada's 1987 novel Strangers.
Andrew Scott - Adam
Paul Mescal - Harry
Jamie Bell - Adam's father
Claire Foy - Adam's mother
Summary
Forty-something London screenwriter Adam spurns the sexual advances of his drunken neighbour Harry.
Adam visits childhood home and finds his parents, who died in a car accident just before his twelfth birthday.
Back at Adam's apartment, Harry's persistence pays off and romance blossoms.
A tale of emptiness and grief unfolds.
Queer as Ghosts
While maintaining principle, approach is completely different to Nobuhiko Obayashi's horror The Discarnates, which stuck closer to source material.
Performances are very good and running time moves at pace.
Ignoring supernatural activity, relationship smacks heavily of Bill and Frank in Long, Long Time, the critically acclaimed third episode of The Last of Us.
Does haunting drama put you through the emotional ringer?
Hmmm, yes and no.
Parents disappearing hit the most, but it's not the heartbreaking weep fest hype makes out.
Towards the end, Adam finds Harry's decomposing body and the same whisky bottle he was drinking from when they first met. Harry appears in physical form and says: "I'm in there, aren't I?"
As they spoon on a bed, camera pans out as Adam's favourite Frankie Goes to Hollywood song The Power of Love plays, with couple eventually becoming a constellation in the night sky.
Did Harry kill himself shortly after Adam initially turned him down?
Probably.
Whether spiritual beings are real or a product of Adam's imagination is down to personal opinion.
But one things for sure, he was alive at the beginning.
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