Strange Romance
In September 2019, Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts), a philosophy professor at Yale University, and her therapist husband Frederik Mendelssohn (Michael Stuhlbarg) host a dinner party. Alma recently returne…
Strange Romance
In September 2019, Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts), a philosophy professor at Yale University, and her therapist husband Frederik Mendelssohn (Michael Stuhlbarg) host a dinner party. Alma recently returned to her post after taking an extended medical leave. She experiences frequent bouts of pain and takes prescription medication. In attendance are Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield), Alma's colleague and best friend, Katie (Thaddea Graham), Dr. Kim Sayers, Arthur (Will Price) and Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri), her top PhD student. Hank teases Maggie about hiding her doctoral dissertation from him, as he wants to read it. Hank is mildly condescending to Maggie all night and both Alma and Frederik notice it. Alma and Hank spend the entire evening discussing the various viewpoints of Philosophy. Alma and Hank are both up for tenure. Alma and Hank are both very competitive and admit that they would not like it if the other one got the tenure and they did not. Arthur insinuates that in today's day and age women are being promoted into higher positions, simply because of their gender, and this infuriates Alma who says that she is a distinguished professor with many professional accolades and deserves her position. Maggie finds a mysterious envelope in the bathroom cupboard containing old mementos and pockets a newspaper clipping from the envelope. Frederik privately opines to Alma that Hank and Maggie are unremarkable and that she is drawn to them only because they greatly admire her. Hank walks Maggie home. Alma pays her maid Faviola (Lailani Olan) $350 for the night's effort. The next day, Maggie is absent from Alma's class. Alma goes for drinks with Hank who asks if she saw Maggie that day. Alma finds Maggie outside her home later that night, and Maggie confides in Alma that Hank sexually assaulted her in her home after she invited him in for a nightcap. Maggie finds Alma insufficiently supportive and leaves. Alma speaks to Hank shortly afterwards, who denies the allegation, saying he asked Maggie for a nightcap after they left Alma's dinner party and that she approached him sexually. He also argues that Maggie is fabricating the incident as an assault because he accused her of plagiarizing her dissertation, when he saw her work a few months ago. Hank is afraid as Maggie's parents are rich and made huge donations to the campus. Alma further upsets Maggie by speaking to the dean RJ Thomas (David Leiber) without her permission. Maggie and Hank separately ask Alma for her support. Maggie says that she has decided to press charges against Hank. Alma returns home and notices the newspaper clipping is missing from the envelope, prompting her to burn most of what was in it. The next day, Hank is fired and storms into Alma's classroom, angrily accusing her of not standing up for him to protect her own career. Hank bursts out, and Maggie walks outside. Alma follows Maggie and comforts her, inviting her to dinner that night. Maggie also mentions to Alma that a reporter approached her to talk about the allegation. Alma counsels Maggie not to pursue the case as Maggie would never be hired by any university as they all run by white males, who would be afraid that Maggie would do the same to them, what she did to Hank. The following day, Alma goes out for a drink with a colleague of hers, Dr. Kim Sayers (Chloe Sevigny), the university psychiatrist, who believes Maggie, while voicing her disdain for how the students' generation treats their problems. Throughout the period, Alma's pain keeps getting worse and worse, but she tries to hide it from everyone. Maggie goes public with her allegation in the Yale Daily News. She also translates the German-language newspaper clipping that she took from Alma's bathroom, revealing that, as a teenager, Alma accused her father's friend Matthias Wolff of sexually assaulting her but later recanted the accusation. She meets Alma and asks if this is why she reacted the way she did to Maggie's allegation. Alma, angry that Maggie violated her privacy, tells her to leave her alone. Alma is caught forging a prescription for herself from Kim, and her tenure consideration is paused indefinitely. Afterwards, Alma runs into Maggie on campus and confronts her, making her own accusation of plagiarism, criticizing her work ethic, her mirroring of Alma's mannerisms and dress, her privilege as the child of wealthy Yale donors, and suggests that she is in a performance based relationship with her non-binary partner, Alex (LÃo Mehiel). Alma further insinuates that no one believes Maggie's allegation against Hank, prompting Maggie to slap her. Alma retreats to her wharf side vacation apartment and finds Hank sleeping there, having kept the borrowed keys that Alma had lent his sister for a past visit. Both wounded from recent events, they discuss Hank's behavior. While he acknowledges flirting with members of his classes, he again denies that he sexually assaulted Maggie or that he ever had sex with students, saying the only professional boundary he ever crossed was a past affair with Alma, whom he still harbors feelings for. They share a tender kiss, which he attempts to escalate to sex, despite Alma telling him no multiple times until she shoves him and kicks him out of the apartment. Alma returns to campus the next day, not realizing Rolling Stone has published an article in which Maggie heavily criticizes how she and Yale have handled Maggie coming forward. Alma is confronted by Alex and a group of other student protesters and collapses as her stomach ulcers perforate. In the hospital, Alma tells Frederik the truth about her sexual assault as a teenager, which he knows few details of: at age 15, she initiated a sexual relationship with Wolff, and when he ended the relationship to be with a woman his age, she fabricated a sexual assault allegation against him that she later recanted but led to his suicide. Frederik points out that even if she feels that way, what happened was statutory sexual assault. In January 2025, Alma is now a dean, having restored her career by publishing an article about her experience with statutory sexual assault as a teenager. She meets Maggie at a diner which is their first meeting since the earlier events. They discuss what has happened in their lives, and Alma tells Maggie that Hank now works as a political consultant for the Democratic Party and is making a lot of money, and that she's still with Frederik. Maggie is engaged to a woman named Nia. Maggie comments that Alma's article was a cynical move but smart, and that Alma "won", and she leaves. As Alma pays and leaves, Luca Guadagnino yells "cut!" off-screen.
Strange Romance
Drama
Film Details
In September 2019, Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts), a philosophy professor at Yale University, and her therapist husband Frederik Mendelssohn (Michael Stuhlbarg) host a dinner party. Alma recently returned to her post after taking an extended medical leave. She experiences frequent bouts of pain and takes prescription medication.
In attendance are Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield), Alma's colleague and best friend, Katie (Thaddea Graham), Dr. Kim Sayers, Arthur (Will Price) and Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri), her top PhD student. Hank teases Maggie about hiding her doctoral dissertation from him, as he wants to read it.
Hank is mildly condescending to Maggie all night and both Alma and Frederik notice it. Alma and Hank spend the entire evening discussing the various viewpoints of Philosophy. Alma and Hank are both up for tenure.
Alma and Hank are both very competitive and admit that they would not like it if the other one got the tenure and they did not. Arthur insinuates that in today's day and age women are being promoted into higher positions, simply because of their gender, and this infuriates Alma who says that she is a distinguished professor with many professional accolades and deserves her position. Maggie finds a mysterious envelope in the bathroom cupboard containing old mementos and pockets a newspaper clipping from the envelope.
Frederik privately opines to Alma that Hank and Maggie are unremarkable and that she is drawn to them only because they greatly admire her. Hank walks Maggie home. Alma pays her maid Faviola (Lailani Olan) $350 for the night's effort.
The next day, Maggie is absent from Alma's class. Alma goes for drinks with Hank who asks if she saw Maggie that day. Alma finds Maggie outside her home later that night, and Maggie confides in Alma that Hank sexually assaulted her in her home after she invited him in for a nightcap.
Maggie finds Alma insufficiently supportive and leaves. Alma speaks to Hank shortly afterwards, who denies the allegation, saying he asked Maggie for a nightcap after they left Alma's dinner party and that she approached him sexually. He also argues that Maggie is fabricating the incident as an assault because he accused her of plagiarizing her dissertation, when he saw her work a few months ago.
Hank is afraid as Maggie's parents are rich and made huge donations to the campus. Alma further upsets Maggie by speaking to the dean RJ Thomas (David Leiber) without her permission. Maggie and Hank separately ask Alma for her support.
Maggie says that she has decided to press charges against Hank. Alma returns home and notices the newspaper clipping is missing from the envelope, prompting her to burn most of what was in it. The next day, Hank is fired and storms into Alma's classroom, angrily accusing her of not standing up for him to protect her own career.
Hank bursts out, and Maggie walks outside. Alma follows Maggie and comforts her, inviting her to dinner that night. Maggie also mentions to Alma that a reporter approached her to talk about the allegation.
Alma counsels Maggie not to pursue the case as Maggie would never be hired by any university as they all run by white males, who would be afraid that Maggie would do the same to them, what she did to Hank. The following day, Alma goes out for a drink with a colleague of hers, Dr. Kim Sayers (Chloe Sevigny), the university psychiatrist, who believes Maggie, while voicing her disdain for how the students' generation treats their problems.
Throughout the period, Alma's pain keeps getting worse and worse, but she tries to hide it from everyone. Maggie goes public with her allegation in the Yale Daily News. She also translates the German-language newspaper clipping that she took from Alma's bathroom, revealing that, as a teenager, Alma accused her father's friend Matthias Wolff of sexually assaulting her but later recanted the accusation.
She meets Alma and asks if this is why she reacted the way she did to Maggie's allegation. Alma, angry that Maggie violated her privacy, tells her to leave her alone. Alma is caught forging a prescription for herself from Kim, and her tenure consideration is paused indefinitely.
Afterwards, Alma runs into Maggie on campus and confronts her, making her own accusation of plagiarism, criticizing her work ethic, her mirroring of Alma's mannerisms and dress, her privilege as the child of wealthy Yale donors, and suggests that she is in a performance based relationship with her non-binary partner, Alex (LÃo Mehiel). Alma further insinuates that no one believes Maggie's allegation against Hank, prompting Maggie to slap her. Alma retreats to her wharf side vacation apartment and finds Hank sleeping there, having kept the borrowed keys that Alma had lent his sister for a past visit.
Both wounded from recent events, they discuss Hank's behavior. While he acknowledges flirting with members of his classes, he again denies that he sexually assaulted Maggie or that he ever had sex with students, saying the only professional boundary he ever crossed was a past affair with Alma, whom he still harbors feelings for. They share a tender kiss, which he attempts to escalate to sex, despite Alma telling him no multiple times until she shoves him and kicks him out of the apartment.
Alma returns to campus the next day, not realizing Rolling Stone has published an article in which Maggie heavily criticizes how she and Yale have handled Maggie coming forward. Alma is confronted by Alex and a group of other student protesters and collapses as her stomach ulcers perforate. In the hospital, Alma tells Frederik the truth about her sexual assault as a teenager, which he knows few details of: at age 15, she initiated a sexual relationship with Wolff, and when he ended the relationship to be with a woman his age, she fabricated a sexual assault allegation against him that she later recanted but led to his suicide.
Frederik points out that even if she feels that way, what happened was statutory sexual assault. In January 2025, Alma is now a dean, having restored her career by publishing an article about her experience with statutory sexual assault as a teenager. She meets Maggie at a diner which is their first meeting since the earlier events.
They discuss what has happened in their lives, and Alma tells Maggie that Hank now works as a political consultant for the Democratic Party and is making a lot of money, and that she's still with Frederik. Maggie is engaged to a woman named Nia. Maggie comments that Alma's article was a cynical move but smart, and that Alma "won", and she leaves.
As Alma pays and leaves, Luca Guadagnino yells "cut!" off-screen..