THE PHOTOGRAPH
(12)
★★★★★
JADED journalist Michael Block (Lakeith Stanfield) prepares to write a feature on photographer Christina Eames (Chante Adams).
He travels to Louisiana to interview her friend Isaac Jefferson (Rob Morgan), who barely conceals the depth of his true feelings for Christina and their shared history.
Michael gathers further background detail by meeting Christina’s estranged daughter Mae Morton (Issa Rae), who shares her mother’s love of art and works as a curator. The writer finds his integrity compromised by a burgeoning attraction to Mae.
As Michael wrestles with his feelings, he becomes personally invested in unravelling the doomed love story between Christina and young Isaac (played by Y’lan Noel).
The Photograph is a swooning romantic drama which unfolds in parallel time frames, juxtaposing Michael and Mae’s flirtations with heartbreak in 1980s Louisiana.
Love ripples across the decades in writer-director Stella Meghie’s sure-footed script, which contrasts the two romances and the competing desires that threaten to tear each couple apart.
Stanfield and Rae catalyse a smouldering screen chemistry that never threatens to catch fire while Noel and Adams turn up the heat to a boil in their lustrous scenes.
Lil Rel Howery provides gently effervescent comic relief and some welcome energy as Michael’s brother, who is never short of choice words of wisdom.
Tears well and heartstrings are plucked with a predictable but nevertheless satisfying emotional pay-off.
■ Available to download/stream from July 6.