The Photograph

 2020, d. Stella Meghie - Crave

For too long my "romance" diet has consisted of formulaic Hallmark-type holiday romance, to the point that I've forgotten what a good romantic drama looks like. So, with that said, is this a good one?

I mean, I liked it, quite a bit, but it's got Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield so I'm kind of predisposed to liking it. I would watch either of these two (individually or together) watch paint dry for two hours, so my standards might be low.

There's definitely romance formulae at play but the nature in which it tells its story, across two generations -a recently passed mother relating in a letter to her daughter a past love, and that daughter's current romance- and giving weight to both sides of each of the romances, it's a full story that folds well upon itself. Even the "big reveal" (which you probably already guess from my one-line synopsis) isn't played as a "big reveal", and it's beautifully handled. The complication (as every romance has a complication) is a real one that would indeed keep lovers apart and not just a stupid misunderstanding.

I'll admit sometimes the narrative contrivance of Rae reading a letter to spur the flashback of her mother's story wasn't the most organically threaded, but it's hardly something that drowns the film.

This film is gorgeously lit and has an amazing soundtrack, and is altogether a mood.  There's no real highs, no real lows, just a sense of real.  There's romance, but not a lot of sexy.  Sexy would have heightened things too much and this seemed to be all about sustaining a groove, which it does well. 

Rae is just magnetic and could have carried this on her own, but the cast is well stacked, both in modern day and flashback (when did the 90's look like SO LONG AGO?!?) with character actors and comedic performers (dialing it down) that it sweetly coasts through its runtime.