All of Us Strangers review: Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal are devastatingly sexy and sad

To borrow from another pop culture property: What is grief, if not love persevering?

That's the conceit at the heart of All of Us Strangers, the new film from writer-director Andrew Haigh, which follows gay Londoner Adam (Andrew Scott) as he grapples with the trauma and loss of his parents from his pre-teen years. Shortly after meeting his drunk but sexy neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal), Adam begins visiting his childhood home and having chats with his parents — played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell — whom he lost in a car crash when he was 12.

As he makes up for years of lost time, he's able to have conversations he's longed for, including seeing his parents' reaction to his sexuality, his career choices, and wrestling with the trauma of his youth as a closeted gay boy in 1980s England. Simultaneously, he strikes up a passionate romance with Harry.

Searchlight Pictures Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott in 'All of Us Strangers'

Haigh's film is more a tone poem on loss and love than a strictly linear narrative. To let someone in and allow himself to accept love, Adam must first find the closure he's never had. The entire proceedings exist in a dreamlike state, leaving the audience unsure of what is real and what is imagined.

Scott and Mescal have electric chemistry; their love scenes are sweaty, intimate, and visceral. But though their romance has been the film's main selling point, that is actually secondary to the parental love story at play. Still, it's sheer bliss to see these two objects of the internet's affection, who also happen to be acting powerhouses, loving up on each other.

Searchlight Pictures Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal in 'All of Us Strangers'

Scott, belovedly known most as Fleabag's Hot Priest, finally gets a leading film role worthy of this talent. He possesses a unique blend of puckishness and melancholy that makes the story's more supernatural elements all the more otherworldly. Scott's ability to transform back into a child — sneaking into his parent's bed at night or gazing with wonder at the Christmas tree — is a magic trick of its own. It's both odd and heartbreaking, watching him bask in the love and emotional nourishment he's hungered for years.

Mescal, mumbly and physically affectionate, juxtaposes against Scott's more restrained physicality. But it is in watching Scott slowly allow tenderness, intimacy, and love into Adam's life that makes the film settle onto your chest like a weighted blanket. Scott has always excelled at allowing for raw vulnerability on screen, and Strangers is no exception.

Foy and Bell are also superb as parents of another time, who are trying their best to make sense of their son's modern life. There are touches of whimsy in the parent's '80s attire and the BritPop soundtrack, elements which lend the film an inherent sense of nostalgia and make the film's emotional climax all the more devastating.

Searchlight Pictures Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott in 'All of Us Strangers'

Grief is a funny animal; it tangles itself in our organs and sinews, permanently altering how we love, how we see ourselves, and how we make sense of our identity. That's what Haigh is unraveling here, with a bittersweet emphasis on the power of love and its ability to transcend even death itself. All of Us Strangers will break your heart — but it just might mend it too. Grade: A-

All of Us Strangers opens in theaters on Dec. 22.

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