If the film “Loving” has any historical accuracy, it appears that Richard and Mildred Loving weren’t very outspoken individuals. Joel Edgerton, who plays Richard Loving, takes a very shy and tender approach to the role, giving us a character that likes to do as he pleases but not in a brash way. Ruth Negga, the actress for Mildred, gives us a less shy character, but one that still comes across as innocently timid when interacting with strangers.

Richard prefers to just go about quietly doing his own thing while Mildred seems to look at the positives in any situation that is being presented to them. They’re not exactly the type of individuals one would assume to be the center of one of the most important court cases in civil rights history.

“Loving” is the story of an inter-racial couple who gets married, but are persecuted in their home state of Virginia and forced to move to DC. Eventually, with the help of some overly eager and somewhat inexperienced lawyers, the Loving’s manage to take the legality of their marriage all the way to the Supreme Court and ultimately change the course of history.

“Loving” is a soft-spoken and tender movie that opts to stay true to the heart and personality of the focal couple rather than over-Hollywoodizing the story in order to make it more appealing to a mass audience. The amount of respect I have for that is boundless.

Any film that sacrifices a slightly more dramatic and Hollywood-friendly plot for one that is more accurate to the source story and focuses more on the emotional integrity of the film deserves a vast amount of respect. Yes, there are moments in “Loving” when the film is moving at a pace that would make L.A. traffic seem like a racetrack, but these slow moving character developing moments pay off in the end by adding an excess emotion that wouldn’t normally be there. By the end of the film, you care so much for the characters without even realizing it until the screen goes to black.

The film starts to naturally pick up speed once the court cases become more of a prominent focus of the storyline because it’s just a more engaging set of events at their core, but the emotional tenderness that is gushing from this film remains throughout it’s entirety even in the latter stages.

While this film is obviously about the civil rights fight to allow interracial marriage, more than anything it is a simple love story; a love story that is ever so elegantly told. It never falls into cheesy romance clichés and other narrative pitfalls of overly dramatic love stories. It displays the essence of love in such an assured and confident way through its powerful main actors that even though it may be understated on first glance, it actually holds an immensely powerful and poignant depth that pleasantly lingers for some time.

This film is a wonderful testament to what love is all about; it may not be passionate and overflowing with exuberance all the time but sometimes it’s the quiet moments when you’re just laying on the couch together that turn out to be the most cherished and significant. This is one of the best love stories, and if given the patience to see it out until the end, it has to potential to make an impact on a wide range of audiences.