Jeff Nichols’ “Loving,” about Richard and Mildred Loving, is about simple-minded people, simply being in love.
Both born and raised in the hills of Central Point, Virginia, the Lovings wed in 1958. But five weeks later, while Mildred was pregnant, they were roused from their bed at 2 a.m. by a Caroline County sheriff, put in jail and later ordered out of the state for 25 years.
In Nichols’ tender, graceful film, a love story progresses naturally, beautifully, with sudden, surreal interruptions — like the middle-of-the-night arrest — that play like abductions. And that’s essentially what they were. Richard was white and Mildred was black, and that was enough to make their marriage a crime in 1958 Virginia.
For the complete story, visit BigStory.AP.org.
