Lone Schurfig's "The Kindness of Strangers" with Zoe Kazan and Andrea Riseborough

"The Kindness of Strangers" is a topical film set in NYC which follows a battered wife Clara (an excellent Zoe Kazan) fleeing an abusive husband with her 2 young sons.  She finds herself homeless while navigating  Manhattan desperate & determined to protect her boys.  Making matters more treacherous, Zoe's husband is a police officer able to track his wife and cover his abusive attacks.  The film is written & directed by Lone Scherfig (b. Denmark 1959).  Scherfig skillfully maps the streets of Manhattan while shifting between the homeless and the affluent.   Scherfig doesn't shy away from topics of homelessness, domestic violence and the world in which one can all too easily find themselves without shelter; dependent on support & compassion from strangers.  While having a meal with her sons in a soup kitchen, a homeless man returns the younger boy to Clara who clutches him while closing her eyes to the homeless person who cared for her child.  Clara's slight irates the man & he becomes volatile "She won't even look at me.  You're no better than me," he yells.  This is one of many indelible scenes that occur ubiquitously though many choose not see. Clara finds refuge from Alice, an angelic nurse (Andrea Riseborough).  Alice seems to take on the burdens of the world.  She also runs a support group for people seeking permission to forgive themselves.  Defense atty. John (Jay Baruchel) and his former client Mark (Tahar Rabin) who served jail time attend these weekly sessions.  This is a gift of the magi storyline where both Mark & John believe they're providing solace for the other. The film is a mixture of magical encounters dispersed amongst the underbelly of the city's misbegotten.  Bill Nighy who is always magnificent has a small but pivotal role.  His Russian restaurant is the hairpin connecting the happenstance characters.  Alice loses her composure while counseling her support group and snaps, "What gives you the right to be unkind."   "The Kindness of Strangers" is a curious & provocative film.  It behooves us to give help for those in need and teaches us to be forgiving of others and ourselves.