Sylvie’s Love movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Sylvie’s Love

Premiered on Amazon on December 23, 2020

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 1 hour 54 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: A-

IN A NUTSHELL:

Presented by Amazon Studios, this lovely tale takes place in New York City in the late 1950s and early 1960s and was directed by Eugene Ashe, who grew up in Harlem, New York. It’s almost a reimagining of that time period for African Americans, yet a timeless telling of star-crossed lovers. It really transports you back in time and will satisfy those who love old dramatic romance movies.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Talk of intimate relations, and then you see a couple rolling around in bed.
Kids will be bored.
Some profanity.
Talk of infidelity

THEMES:

Talk of economic “stations.”
“Life’s too short to waste time doing things you don’t absolutely love.” – Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha)
Infidelity
Fate
Love
Purpose in life
Choices and consequences
Following your heart
The secrets we keep

THINGS I LIKED:

Tessa Thompson gives a fierce performance and evokes all the feels. She looks as cute as a button in her stylish outfits. She also worked as one of the executive producers on this film. Good for her!
Nnamdi Asomugha was a pleasure to watch. Did you know he had a 10-year career in the NFL?
Jazz lovers will enjoy the soundtrack. The music itself is one of the characters in the movie. If you don’t like jazz music, you can still enjoy the film. The director, Eugene Ashe, has a musical background which you can feel by the way he put the film together.
Aja Naomi King is a delightful breath of fresh air.
I remember watching the TV show I LOVE LUCY with my mother when I was a little girl. I love that they showed the classic candy factory episode on the TV that Sylvie was watching when Robert walked into her father’s store.
The magical first kiss captured the moment well of the surprise of falling in love in an instant. The two leads have chemistry and you feel the tenderness and anguish as they come together and are pulled apart.
I always love it when New York City is one of the characters in a movie. You really get a feel for the city and its magical pull on you.
Wendi McLendon-Covey’s characters in movies always crack me up.
Lovely cinematography by Declan Quinn.
The movie was made on a pretty small budget, yet it doesn’t look or feel like it.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

There’s not a lot of humor.
It would have added an interesting element to show what was happening in the Civil Rights movement at the time.
The characters are a bit cliched with some plot tropes we’ve seen before.
Other than pure physical attraction, I would have loved to see their relationship be built on some more substantive ground.
Some scenes could have been shortened to improve the pacing and editing issues.
Some of the subplots and characters were underdeveloped.

INTERESTING LINES:

“See you later, alligator!” – Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha) My dad used to say that all the time when I was a little girl.
“I can’t be the woman of your dreams while I want to be the woman of my own.” – Sylvie (Tessa Thompson)