Easily Nichols' weakest movie to date. The story was an important one to tell, but maybe not an interesting enough one to allow for entertaining cinema. The movie felt overlong and uneventful and, although I think that's what Nichols was trying to go for, excessively subdued. The main characters' passivity, expecially Richard Loving's, in my opinion downplayed in the eyes of the viewer the gravity of the whole situation. The main stong points are the Negga's and Edgerton's exceptional performances, and a few deeply moving human moments.

An important story to tell, even if it was a bit like watching paint dry. Lots of protracted scenes without dialog against a lullaby soundtrack.

This movie was shown in the sneak preview at our cinema, so I did not know what to expect, and actually I haven't heard from it before (at least in Germany there was no advertising for it at all). I found it hard to rate, and would like to split it into two aspects: 1) The story, which is a story worth telling as it is an important story that pays credit to a real event in history, which is - at least in Germany totally unknown. I don't know how it is in the USA, but I guess even there it might be an eye-opener to one or the other viewer. 2) The movie, as an artistic expression that is created to "entertain" us in cinemas. Let's start with the second: the cinematic recreation is rather bad. If it wasn't for the other aspect, I'd rate this 5 points. The story is processing sluggishly, the actors do not portrait any great emotions, the soundtrack is nothing that you realize (neither positive nor negative) and not much happens in the entire moive. I like the sentence I picked up in one of the ohter comments to this movie: "it was a bit like watching paint dry" - yeah, it actually is. And that is so, even thoug you are somewaht interested in what would probably happen next; I was waiting for the dramatic turnaround - was the mother the one that tipped them off? Or was it someone from the girls family? Is anything bad goint to happen to either of them? Like people beating them up, etc.? But actually nothing happens. Of course I understand how the director would have probably wanted to keep this as real and realistic as possible, and I highly appreciate it. However, if you don't have much to tell in a movie, why not make the way you tell it interesting? Take "The Dinner" for example - it's all about some people meeting at a restaurant discussing a family matter - that's all there is to it, still how the story is told, how the events unfold, how we get to get know all the details - that was interestingly shot and cut into a final movie. Or if you want another courtroom drama, take "The Social network" and look how a simple boring story of a guy being sued by two different parties is cut together in a way that keeps you invested the entire time of the movie. I don't think that I'm too much hollywood-maladjusted; I love slow paced movies, I enjoyed Manchester by the Sea, for instance, which is also quite slow-paced and not comparable to typical hollywood cinema, where everything is entirely dramatic and exploding and stuff. But taking two rather shallow characters and telling their story linearly over the time of 10 or more years - that just doesn't cut it. So, then there is the other aspect - the story, and that is a story woth telling, hell yes - everyone go watch this movie and learn some empathy. Honor this brave two individuals that both have to fight with different demons and where dealt with a life of hardship only because of their love, which should be a human right. And only this aspect gains the movie a number of bonus points, which lead me to finally give it 7/10, because even though as a movie it fails horrible, the story is worth watching and knowing!

I watched this because Ruth Negga is nominated for an Oscar for this role, otherwise the movie may have slipped my attention, and that would have been a loss. This was a great movie, with great acting and an important story. The era that these people lived in, and the brutality that was ever present for people who were making the decision they made was ever a potential, and the film makers used this effectively as an ever present tension in their storytelling. This soft-spoken, non-political couple changed history. I give it a 9 (superb) out of 10. And Ruth Negga is a worthy nominee, in a tight race for her category.