LOVING

By Don Fowler
Posted 11/30/16

LOVING * * * (Joyce) * * * (Don) (Interracial love story) Based on an incredible true story, the double entendre title deals with Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred (Ruth Negga) loving and their interracial marriage. Richard is a white, introverted

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LOVING

Posted

LOVING

* * * ½ (Joyce)

* * * (Don)

(Interracial love story)

Based on an incredible true story, the double entendre title deals with Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred (Ruth Negga) loving and their interracial marriage. Richard is a white, introverted bricklayer who falls in love with a black woman in rural Virginia, back when interracial marriage was against the law in that state.

The couple travel to Washington, D.C. to marry, but are arrested when they return to their home state. The local judge orders them to leave the state or face a long prison sentence.

During their five years in D.C., they live in an apartment in the city, have three children, and long for their friends and relatives back in Virginia. While watching the civil rights protests on TV, Mildred writes a letter to Robert Kennedy, who was attorney general at the time. The ACLU assigns a lawyer to the case. The rest, as they say, is history, as this one case before the Supreme Court literally changes the Constitution.

I had problems accepting Richard's reluctance to fight for his rights and the significant social change that his situation represented. Joyce accepted that he was a simple man who wanted nothing more than to love and take care of his wife and family, avoiding the publicity of the trial.

The events of the film are significant in terms of the Constitution, especially as we look at the events of today with marriage equality. The movie stays very low key in presenting them.

Rated PG-13. Young people would learn a good history lesson watching this movie.

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