FILM OF THE WEEK
Loving Cert: 12A; Now showing
When Mildred Jeter became pregnant in 1958 and her boyfriend Richard Loving wanted to marry her they had to do so outside their native State of Virginia. Upon their return as newlyweds they lived quietly in their happily mixed race rural area but someone reported them to authorities. Because Mildred was black and Richard white, they had broken Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute, for which they were thrown in jail — the heavily pregnant Mildred for longer than her white husband.
They faced a 25-year sentence if they refused to end the marriage or leave the State, and it became the subject of a long drawn-out and landmark case in the United States.
Jeff Nichols, who has written and directed several excellent films, among them last year’s underseen Midnight Special, takes the remarkable and galling story and makes it into a beautifully shot, authentic, excellently acted but on occasion somewhat too understated movie. The focus has mostly been on Ruth Negga’s lovely portrayal of the quietly firm Mildred but Joel Edgerton’s performance as Richard is excellent too. They were reluctant heroes, people who wanted a simple life but who were forced to live that in an entirely different environment to the one they desired. It was Mildred who was the main force behind seeking justice. The power of what must have been a remarkable love story is insinuated but perhaps needed to have been a little less subtle for the dramatic purposes of the film. It raises the tempo with Marton Csokas’s almost casually nasty sheriff Brooks, or wondering who informed on the Lovings without gathering major dramatic speed. It is however important, effective and beautifully told.