THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

Denmark, 2019 , 112 minutes, Colour.
Zoe Kazan, Andrea Riseborough, Tahar Rahim, Jack Fulton, Finlay Wojtig Hissong, Jay Baruschel, Caleb Landry Jones, David Dencik, Esben Smed.
Directed by Lone Scherfig.

The title has become a classic quotation from Tennessee Williams, Blanche Dubois telling her relatives how she had benefited from the kindness of strangers. This is an apt title for a film of warmth (not always literal for the characters), a film about the need for kindness and kind people who render it, often without question, just from natural goodness.

This is a film about a brutal husband who is a policeman, preoccupied with Internet images of brutality, who has made his wife and two sons suffer, so the film opens with them getting in a car and escaping their house, driving to New York City, the mother, Clara (Zoe Kazan), a housewife with little experience of the world, and the boys, Anthony (Jack Fulton very effective) and Jude (Finlay Wojtik Hissong). The drama of the film is a very distressing reminder of the ordinariness of male brutality in the home and the consequences for mother and children who have to flee the home and are not sure where to go.

A great variety of characters is introduced but, gradually, all of them become interlinked. The most significant is a dedicated nurse, Alice (Andrea Riseborough) who is also based at a church, has organised a soup kitchen, office space for a children’s choir – and she runs a help group whose theme is forgiveness. She certainly embodies the kindness to strangers. In the Forgive group (quite a random selection of rather prickly participants) is a defence lawyer who is depressed because he usually loses his cases, John Peter (Jay Baruchel), and one of his clients who has just emerged from four years in prison, taking the blame for his addicted brother Marc, (very sympathetic Tahar Rahim). Also drawn into the group is a young man, Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones), clumsy by nature, lacking in good practical judgement, forever fired from all jobs but meeting Alice who sees him as a volunteer for the soup kitchen (even though he uses the wrong utensil to pick up the bread rolls), but, with the response of the strangers in his life, he finds some permanence (though not necessarily any greater skills).

Most of the characters at one stage or another converge on a Russian restaurant in New York City, owned by an American who inherited it from his grandfather but who is also not the greatest manager but a kindly host, Bill Nighy with a strange accent and an amusing explanation about it). Marc becomes the manager.

So, quite a mixture. The main focus, of course, is the young mother trying to manage her children, scrounging food, shoplifting, sleeping in the car, taking refuge in a public library, getting more desperate, especially when they are tracked down by her policeman husband, causing them to flee again.

Most audiences will like this film, a good reminder of outreach of justice and kindness (with a salutary scene where an old homeless man speaks to the mother and then accuses her of looking down on him, even of not looking at him, not her intention but, in fact, what she does). This is the kind of film that many reviewers and audiences who like tough dramas sometimes dismiss as too nice (do they really want the film to end with the mother and children out on the street again!).

1. The title, the quotation from Tennessee Williams? Is applied literally to the situations and characters here?

2. The film’s presupposition about human kindness, optimism?

3. The director, Danish perspective, on New York City and Americans, humane, romantic, critique of the poverty and homelessness divisions?

4. New York City, the vistas, the affluent world, the world of the poor and homeless, living in a car, the mean streets, hospitals, factories, the church and the soup kitchen, the space for the children’s orchestra, shops, parties, the Russian restaurant? The musical score?

5. The introduction to Clara, waiting, getting the boys, leaving in the car, driving to New York City, fleeing her husband? Her husband and the explanation of his story, policeman, Clara had a job, meeting, the date, marriage, the children? His inner violence? The brutal images on his computer and Anthony searching for them? Getting Anthony to brutalise his mother? Hatred by all the members of the family, fear of his pursuing them? As a policeman, his contacts, finding them in the Chinese restaurant?

6. New York is a holiday for the children, sites, the library? Clara pretending, the difficulties, the car, the fines, it is being taken away? Are going to the shops, stealing the dress? Looking for food? The family homeless?

7. The portrait of Alice, the kind character, a devoted work in the hospital, the group in the church, the Forgiveness workshop, the participants? Running the soup kitchen? Self-sacrifice? The interest in John Peter, the attraction? Money and her critique of the group meeting? The meeting with Jeff, inviting him to be volunteer, is using the Waller wrong implement for the bread rolls? Seeing Clara and the children? Offering them shelter in the church, due going outside exploring, freezing? Getting ginger out of the hospital? Phoning Mark, getting the help at the Russian restaurant? It becoming too much for Alice, the long shifts, the appeal from the head nurse? The issue of the group getting a grant and location of the hospital? Her returning? Jeff and his kindness – and the sexual offer? The attraction to John Peter, getting a life?

8. Jeff, hapless, awkward and breaking things, being fired from so many jobs, his tossing the chair out the window – and the irony of John Peter later having it in his office? Homeless in New York, at the church, the soup kitchen, Alice getting in to help, his proposal to Alice, getting a job in the Russian restaurant, the door, the welcome, playing balalaika, his being affirmed but not necessarily better fitted for jobs?

9. Mike, his story, reliance on John Peter, his years in jail, taking the rap for his brother? Kitchen work in jail? At the Russian restaurant, talking with Timothy, the jobs, managing, his success? With the staff? Seeing Clara is against, stealing food, later finding her hiding under the piano, putting trays of food for herself and the children? The personal attraction? The phone call from Alice, his taking them upstairs and the hideout? A genial man, returning to Alice’s group? The discussions with Timothy, getting the rights to manage? The bond with Clara, the future together?

10. Timothy, inheriting the restaurant, his Russian grandmother, his accent – and the later revelation of his ordinary accent and the reasons for his putting it on? Presence in the restaurant, the band, their performance, his sitting back and watching, interventions and Mark tell him not to? Handing over, and his right comments on Jeff at the door?

11. Clara and her wanting a lawyer, getting the help of John Peter, the visits, the discussions? Dude and his staying out on the night, can’t hospital, becoming better, Alice getting amount, his refusal to talk to his mother? The court case, the evidence, the lawyers and their help, the hearings?

12. Richard’s father, Clara going to him for help, his refusal, even money? His son going to, asking for his help on Richard bashing him?

13. The eventual court hearing, in favour of Clara and the children? Compensation? Finding accommodation, a new car? Going back home? The discussions, school for the boys, the decision to move, due to giving his consent? The return to New York City, schools? Clara and her job, with
Mark?

14. A film of kindness, romance, too nice for many hard-nosed critics – and wondering whether they would prefer the family to be homeless again as a satisfying ending for a serious movie!