Film Review of the Movie Loving

I want you to imagine for a few seconds that you had lived in the United States in the year of 1958. You just committed a crime in the State of Virginia. You have been sentenced to 25 years of banishment from the state or face two years in orison. What is your crime? It wasn't for smuggling illegal contraband, it wasn't for running a con against the elderly and it wasn't for any type of animal abuse. Your crime was for the heinous act of being in an interracial marriage. Thus begins the true story of the movie Loving that chronicled the lives of Richard (white American) and Mildred Loving (black and Native American).

Richard Loving, portrayed by Joel Edgerton, and Mildred Loving, portrayed by Ruth Negga, were just two everyday ordinary people who were thrust into becoming the pioneers of ending anti-miscegenation laws in the United States after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional on June 12, 1967. You would have to look at that year again to fully understand the impact that ruling had on millions of interracial couples in the U/S/ The portrayals from Negga and Edgerton reflected the time in which they lived and experienced. Edgerton's role as Richard Loving had to be a little submissive because he perhaps knew that by marrying a black woman, he couldn't be demonstrative in a county that had clear racial divisions. Negga as Mildred Loving also played the role as a more submissive person and again in the times and geography in which they lived. It's a helluva thing to live life in a Virginia county where the police can merely walk through your front door and bust down your bedroom door and charge you with a crime of being in bed with your wife.

As you watched this film, you see that it was Mildred Loving who initiated the cause during the impetus of the Civil Rights marches conducted by Dr. Martin Luther King. She saw his efforts of bringing together thousands with the march on Washington. Taking her cue from that, she wrote a letter to the then U.S. Attorney General, Robert Kennedy. That letter subsequently landed at the desk of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Benjamin Cohen played effectively by Nick Kroll.

In an era where every actress wants to play the “strong woman” or “strong black woman” role, a factor that has become nauseatingly tiresome and overworked and overused, Negga plays a real life woman who's strength is internal and subdued. I don't know if some female actors will have a problem with the Mildred Loving role? She doesn't reflect the strong woman role that many expect these days. You will not find her yelling or screaming against this antiquated law. You will not find her screaming or berating her husband. It is important that Negga not take any liberties with her portrayal because that is the beauty of this role.

Edgerton too must refrain from doing the same as Richard Loving shares the same dynamic as his wife. Richard Loving was a brick mason. He went to work and came home. He didn't seek any fame or notoriety unlike many today who find the need to be famous through social media.

As a filmmaker, this is the film I had wanted to do. I had seen some archival footage pf the Lovings and found the subject matter extremely interesting. A quick Google search showed me that a film, this film, was currently being filmed. Now that it has arrived, you have empathy for them. They have no understanding of the law and how long a case takes to go through the system. You have empathy for their children as they are considered bastard for being mixed race.

Loving v. Sate of Virginia became THE test case the made same sex marriages the law of the land. I don't think the gay community knows this as they owe the Lovings respect and thanks for being the reluctant pioneers for marriage equally. This is a film worthy of placing on your list to see over the holiday weekend not only for the beauty of it but for also the history lessons we tend to miss that history books often fail to record when it comes to race.  At the end of this film they tell you what happened to them following their victory ruling with the Supreme Court.  Richard Loving was killed by a drunk driver seven years after the victory.  Mildred died in 2008, never remarrying but still in love with her husband.  Grade A +.