Loving - Okay

Stars:  Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton, Will Dalton
Run Time: 2 hours, 3 minutes

Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) falls in love with a black woman, Mildred (Ruth Negga) and they decide to get married. Being from Virginia, this is not legal at the time, an interracial marriage that is. So they drive to Washington D.C. to marry and return home to their farm in Virginia. This too is apparently illegal. They are immediately arrested for co-habitating in the same house regardless of the fact that they are married. The judge allows them a parole instead of jail time, the catch though, is they aren't allowed back in the state of Virginia at the for 25 years unless they decide to dissolve the marriage. In love, the two set off to live in Washington D.C.  

After a few months it's evident that the city life won't work well for Mildred. About to have their first child, they sneak back into Virginia to have the baby among family. Obviously, they get caught and arrested again and find themselves in front of the judge. Given one more chance, they return to Washington D.C. And there they start for about five years. Mildred writes a letter to Bobby Kennedy explaining their predicament and the ball gets rolling. They have a new lawyer (pro-bono) and the civil rights movement on their side. Their fight is even being publicized for all to see. 

​This film is based on a true story.

• I liked the relationship that Richard had with the colored people, regardless of how the times were back then. His and Mildred's love was great and the two actors showed that extremely well. 
• I thought the scene when Raymond came flying down the road was quite funny.
• I can see why Ruth Negga was nominated for an Oscar from this movie. She definitely stole the show for this film. Her need for both her family and Richard was evident. 
• Joel Edgerton in his role as Richard took me a little off guard, I'm not sure to seeing him with bleach blond hair. 
• I liked the idea that Richard was going to build Mildred a home on the acre of land he bought, and I wish that that would have been something bigger in the story. It was only really seen in the ending credits while reading about what happened after the events of the film took place.
• I like that their last name is Loving. 

Loving is an impactful movie, as are all the other Oscar nominees that we have reviewed this month, but I didn't find much of anything special about it. A white man and colored woman fall in love and start a family all while being banned from the place they grew up because of it. It's always nice to see stories like this of how people overcame the hard times that were so prominent back then, but more or less they are all the same, and this one was fairly boring. I'll give this an "okay" rating. 
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