SYLVIE’S LOVE Review
MHM MHM MHM! Nothing like a straight-faced period romance film. Is this what growing up is like? Where you start to open up your heart to films about two beautiful people falling in love while immaculately dressed? I couldn’t really say, but damn did this movie make me feel lovestruck; not just by its characters, but by the art of film itself. Sometimes it’s the simple things…
SYLVIE’S LOVE, from writer/director Eugene Ashe, is a delight, plain and simple. It operates like a throwback but is shaped by a modern sensibility and voice that gives interesting weight to a typical tale of star crossed lovers. For the most part, the journey of aspiring TV producer, Sylvie (Tessa Thompson), and Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha), himself an aspiring saxophonist, goes down a familiar road: the meet-cute, the bonding, the consummation of their attraction, and of course, the various trials that lie in wait for these young lovers as they traverse years and miles alike. While familiar (but in a comforting way), Ashe makes a few interesting detours here and there that add a little more character to a love story we’ve seen time and time before.
The most interesting being that of Sylvie herself, a young woman full of pep and self-determination that powers her towards her dreams, both professional and personal. With a charmingly authentic portrayal of one woman’s path of independence, Ms. Thompson easily makes for a captivating presence as we see Sylvie contend with the tension between following a promising career in TV or a promising relationship with Robert. As her on-and-off lover, Mr. Asomugha, who has transitioned from a pretty solid career in the NFL to the silver screen, can’t quite match Thompson in energy but still manages to make his presence felt with his handsome physicality and natural coolness. In a consistently tepid performance, Asomugha shows potential as a future actor, but for now, runs at an at times redundant emotional pace, granting Robert a rather “plain” personality. Nevertheless, his mustache looks great, and as someone harkening back to those male leads of yore, half the battle is already done there.
Focusing on two people who put as much work into their love for one another as they do into their respective dream jobs, SYLVIE’S LOVE isn’t afraid to address the sometimes tough decisions that arrive from those crossroads. For Sylvie, as a young woman of color trying to break into TV in the 1950’s, hard work and late hours are needed just to get noticed, which coincides with Robert’s own determined pursuit of becoming an established musician in an increasingly competitive industry. As the film carries on, the main conflict of Ashe’s film isn’t in the cliché trappings of jaded past lovers or tragic terminal diseases but in the slippery road of life itself and the choices a person makes in an effort to find the best “version” of life they can. Ashe grants his lovers equal footing in this complication, never once painting them on the concrete sides of “right” or “wrong” sides but rather, as people who are faced with tough decisions about their life, and due to that, his film is imbued with a complicated realness that helps it stand out from its inspirations. On a similar note, while assuredly acting as background context, Ashe’s decision to focus on a story of African American lovers without the shadow of racism overwhelming their relationship feels both refreshing and boundary breaking in a way. It may be escapist, but for once, it’s nice to see a film about a particular minority group where the aura of persecution isn’t a primary plot point, instead giving more agency to the actual people at the center of the story.
As a result, SYLVIE’S LOVE is just a pleasant movie to take in. Sure, there are moments that will elicit tears (of sadness and joy alike), but overall Ashe is intent on delivering a movie that makes one feel good. Everything about it is refined and accomplished, from the eye-catching costume design to the involving set design that is enjoyably stagey and authentic to both the world and films of the 50’s, which are brought to life through Ashe’s keen visual sense. With help from Declan Quinn, who himself has shot a bunch of stage plays and performances, Ashe frames Sylvie and Robert’s romance just like those old romance movies of the past, with back lit city sets and smoky dance and jazz clubs where lovers intermingle. It’s something you’ve seen before, but so effortlessly captured with a kind of nostalgic love that one can’t help but smile at the familiar locations our characters move through. Additionally, I would be remiss to not mention the truly lovely score of Fabrice Lecomte, whose lovely strings and horns capture the highs and lows of a passionate love affair.
In between all those wonderful bells and whistles, a viewer can find a captivating story of two lovers making their way through the world. The destination of Ashe’s film comes to a familiar end, but it still manages to feel rewarding because the filmmaker creates such a lovable duo. Love isn’t always easy or forgiving, but in the company of Sylvie and Robert, love becomes just a tad bit more fun.
4/5
