‘Brutally honest’ or ‘ham-fisted cliche’? What does All of Us Strangers say about being gay? | All of Us Strangers
‘It reflects the ignorance of a less tolerant era and the lingering emotional damage this continues to inflict’ Peter Tatchell If you are looking for a sweet, affirmative, feelgood gay movie, All of Us Strangers is probably not for you. It’s a dark, gut-wrenching love story, with a plotline that blurs reality and fantasy. Adam is an isolated, emotionally damaged gay man. He’s struggling to come to terms with the death of his parents when he was 12, and to overcome the sense of outsider otherness he feels on account of his sexuality. Peter Tatchell on Equality Now march, 1992. Photograph: Courtesy Peter Tatchell This inner turmoil shuts down his openness to relationships and leads him to rebuff the doorstep advances of Harry, a younger, seemingly more confident neighbour. Adam then enters a dreamworld of, what if? The two men embark on a passionate affair, with the companionship, love and acceptance that Adam has so long craved – until it comes to a sudden, heartbreaking halt. The saving grace is Adam’s parallel imagined conversation and …