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Parents' Guide to

The Kindness of Strangers

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Lives interconnect in slow-paced drama with brief violence.

Movie NR 2020 102 minutes
The Kindness of Strangers Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

Six lives interconnect in THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS, a Manhattan-set drama. Clara (Zoe Kazan) is on the run from her abusive husband, while Alice (Andrea Riseborough) is reaching a breaking point from the stresses of her job as an emergency nurse. Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones) first loses a series of jobs, then his apartment, while Marc (Tahar Rahim) struggles to get his life back together after a stint in prison. John Peter (Jay Baruchel) is lonely and in need of friends, and Timofey (Bill Nighy) wants his stagnating restaurant to find its footing.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

Overly long and alternately drearily realistic and implausible, this slow-burn drama at least has a great cast and a redemptive ending. But it's kind of a drag watching The Kindness of Strangers' characters suffer for almost two hours and make silly mistakes before they get the endings they deserve. Kazan at least makes Clara's iffy decisions seem desperate and agonizing; it's harder to explain why Alice starts calling in sick to work and Jeff can't seem to hold a job for longer than a week -- and it's awful to watch his employers criticize him harshly on the way out. "You're pretty bad at just about everything," says one. "Name one thing that you are good at." C'mon, even if things eventually look up, no one wants to watch a downed dog be kicked repeatedly.

There's some lovely camera work (long shots of Toronto and Copenhagen mimicking New York in particular), and, despite the slow pace, you do wind up caring about the lives of the strangers who (often improbably) connect. Nighy, always a hoot, continues his streak here. In one of the movie's best moments, he brings a meal to a pair of restaurant patrons and then, turning away to head back to the kitchen, mistakes a very personal question as directed at him and gives a startling answer. Nighy brings a little lightness whenever he's on-screen, and this movie could use all it can get.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why a lot of movies are set in New York. What does the city symbolize in movies? What about in The Kindness of Strangers? Would it surprise you to know that Toronto and Copenhagen were the principal places this movie was filmed?

  • The movie's characters connect on many different levels. Which seem realistic and/or believable? What events and meetings seem less believable?

  • Talk about how these characters show compassion for each other. Why do you think that's an important character strength?

Movie Details

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