Queen and Slim? Too much woke porn. The Photograph? Visually and musically stunning but neglected its best story. That walk of shame brings us to the latest entry in the search for the next great Black love story, Sylvie’s Love. Starring Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha, Sylvie’s Love is the story of a young Black Harlem couple whose romance begins in the summer of 1957 and the challenges that follow as they move forward. Is this the film that finally gets it right or does Sylvie’s Love belong in the scrap heap of other failed Black love stories?
The chemistry between its leads is the foundation of Sylvie’s Love. The Thompson-Asomugha pairing takes a while to click in the film's early stages but feels perfect after their first real spark flies.
Thompson’s performance is the real MVP. Her knack for connecting with her co-lead is one thing because we’ve seen it before. How Thompson guides us through Sylvie’s maturation as the film progresses is what takes her to another level.
Thompson is reserved during the introduction of Sylvie as she’s a conservative, self-contained young lady. When Sylvie comes into her own, Thompson unleashes the charisma mixed with assertiveness and determination that make her and Sylvie so hypnotizing. She has a long, varied filmography, but this should be the star turn.
Asomugha offers another promising glimpse into his potential as a compelling dramatic lead, but it doesn’t make the same splash as Thompson’s. He portrays a cool jazz musician with ease and his swagger is a nice counter to the conservative Sylvie, but there’s a nagging flaw.
That flaw is Asomugha’s struggle to hit the right amount of vulnerability needed to maximize the intimate and emotion-driven scenes. It downgrades the romance from Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You” to Bobby Brown’s “Girlfriend”. This flaw doesn’t overshadow the good Asomugha brought, but it’s enough to remind you that he is still learning the craft.
The production and technical aspects of Sylvie’s Love may outshine its leads. In only his second feature film, writer-director Eugene Ashe pulls off the ambitious task of telling a Black love story with a Golden Age era look and feel without erasing the Black experience during that time. He opted to establish a world where Black characters were succeeding despite the barriers they encounter. Ashe uses Sylvie’s business-owning parents and Sylvie and Robert's goal-oriented spirit to show Black life beyond the struggle for civil rights while sprinkling reminders of how racism impacts his characters' lives.
That theme is even more present in the costume design and cinematography. Costume designer Phoenix Mellow rejects the norm of humbly dressing 60s era Black characters and styles Sylvie and Robert with elegance and dapper typically attributed to Audrey Hepburn and Gene Kelly's likes. Sylvie’s stunning Tiffany blue dress in the opening scene sets an aesthetically pleasing tone that persists throughout the film as the lighting in the Harlem night backdrop gives the perfect amount of glow thanks to Declan Quinn’s cinematography. Quinn reinforces this tone using shots and settings such as Sylvie and Robert’s beautifully shot outdoor dates to show Harlem as more than a concrete jungle.
Sylvie’s Love is a charming love story written from a unique perspective that wins thanks to great chemistry between its stars, a fantastic performance from Thompson, and breathtaking costume and set designs. However, the film becomes something more with a closer look at those highlights. Ashe crafted a film showing Black love and excellence despite the oppression that sought to keep them from flourishing. Thompson’s performance is reminiscent of the iconic Hollywood glamour Diahann Carroll epitomized despite her race-based exclusion from more film opportunities. The costumes and sets show that Black beauty is classic American beauty regardless of Hollywood’s failure to recognize it.
For those reasons, Sylvie’s Love is not just a must-see for an audience who finally gets the Black love story they’ve craved. It’s an opportunity for everyone to appreciate how beautiful Black has always been and it continues to be.
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