I Can’t Stop Thinking About ‘The Man I Love’
Ira Sachs’s tenth feature film is yet another testament to the fact that we are living in the era of one of the greatest auteurs of our time.
Who said that life is not for amateurs? Ira Sachs’s new film, The Man I Love, is a testament to this statement.
His main character, Jimmy, is a New York theater actor living out his final days in 1980s New York for reasons familiar to gay men of that era. He is one of many who will soon be gone. Nevertheless, Sachs’s new film does not focus on the corridor of death so much as showcase an entire room of life.
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In some ways, The Man I Love is a one-man show. Rami Malek’s delicate portrayal of Jimmy is so enchanting that you simply want to be with him in every shot: as he rehearses his lines in the bedroom for an upcoming show, performs for a crowd of friends in his apartment, or involuntarily seduces you with his ever-moving eyes.
Yet, at the same time, the film boasts a stellar supporting cast whose members give Malek’s Jimmy the stage on which to shine: Tom Sturridge, powerful in his stillness and subtlety as Jimmy’s loyal partner, Dennis, and Luther Ford as Vincent, a beguiling new lover full of youth, innocence, and beauty.
The film invites you to spend a few days with these men and become part of a slowly forming love triangle. It offers no lessons or resolution. In his direction, Sachs is not a preacher. He simply paints a picture and invites you into the room with his protagonists to spend some time with them.
The problem is that when the film ends and the credits roll, you find yourself still sitting in that room with characters who have long since gone. You cannot help thinking about them and quietly mourning them.
The lights came on. The actors and director took the stage to speak. But the movie was still inside me, so vivid and alive. I cannot recall ever crying during a Q&A before. I suppose everything has a first time.
