The Kindness of Strangers (2019) written and directed by Lone Scherfig.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kindness_of_Strangers_(film)

Sometimes we don’t know what to write. I thought this film would be shite, but it was really good, sums it up. Nobody really cares.

The Kindness of Strangers others that. It’s the basis of most religions. We are what we give. Not in the hope of receiving, or as a morality play (although that may be part of that thing we call being truly human) or even the anguished cry of Marlon Brandon calling out to a stricken Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Billy Nighy in incapable of playing anyone but Bill Nighy but here is Timofey, who has inherited a rundown New York hotel. He’s not sure how he’s able to keep afloat.

Ex-con Marc (Tahir Raman) helps him out because it gives him somewhere to live and a purpose in life.

Clara Scott (Zoe Kazan) is fleeing her husband with their two young boys. Her husband is a cop that’s crossed the line. Not only is he beating her, he’s picking on the boys too. They’re terrified and glad to be away on ‘vacation’.  But Clara has no money, no home and pretty soon no car.

Their predicament, familiar to too many in New York, is living hell, with the thought of being caught and returned home to her legal spouse.

Alice (Andrea Risborough) is a nurse and unpaid therapist that regularly eats alone in Timofey’s. She’s too good to be true. The kind of person we’d love to be real.

I guess that’s why this film is so appealing. Sometimes we crave something so sweet. I don’t think I’ve ever written a happy ending, but the truth in the overdose of untruth here left me feeling better about all the daily lies we’re fed (don’t mention Trump and Minnesota) .

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CVBVVGD6