The Photograph Parent Guide

How do you choose between being with the one you love and following your dreams? Christina (Chanté Adams) is a gifted photographer, perfecting her skills in rural Louisiana. She wants to find fame in New York City, but she’s in love with Isaac (Rob Morgan), a local fisherman whose dreams begin and end with marrying her. Should she abandon her goals and stay with Isaac or should she try her luck in the Big Apple?

Thirty-five years later, Christina is dead of cancer. Her daughter, Mae (Issa Rae) meets a reporter, Michael (LaKeith Stanfield) whose work on another story led him to Christina’s photos. The two begin a relationship, just as Michael applies for a new job in London. Now Mae must decide if she’s going to follow her mother’s path or find her own way.

I love romantic dramas and was hoping The Photograph would deliver two love stories for the price of one. It almost does. The chemistry between Christina and Isaac is palpable and it’s easy to feel the emotional strain as both characters realize their dreams are incompatible. Mae and Michael’s relationship, however, stumbles through lots of awkward moments before it starts to gel. Issa Rae winningly portrays the guarded, vulnerable Mae and LaKeith Stanfield plays Michael with puppy dog eyes and a fair bit of verbal bumbling (which is a surprise in a man who makes his living with words). I kept waiting for the relationship to hit its groove, but it takes a while and relies on a steady diet of alcohol and passionate sex to smooth over the growing pains.

The sheer volume of alcohol consumed in The Photograph is going to raise a red flag for some parents. Christina and Isaac occasionally imbibe, but Mae and Michael drink whiskey, champagne, wine, or beer in almost every social event in the film as well as in their homes and that of Michael’s relatives. They don’t get obviously drunk, but the movie sends a message that alcohol is an indispensable part of social interaction. This production also features two steamy scenes of premarital sex, with couples shown undressing, and caressing and rolling atop one another in bed. There is no explicit nudity, but there are scenes of a woman’s bare back and a man’s bare chest. Parents will note that neither couple discusses contraception before engaging in sex. On the bright side, the movie has fewer than a dozen swear words and no violence.

While I am annoyed with the movie’s unnecessary sexual content, my overall attitude to The Photograph is ambivalence. For a film trying to stuff two story lines into two hours, it often feels slow. Not contemplative, just slow. And way too earnest. There are some laughs in this picture, mainly provided by Michael’s brother and his wife (played with charm by Lil Rey Howery and Teyonah Parris) but the story would have been lightened and lifted with more humor. As is, The Photograph feels a bit heavy and out of focus, with a relationship that comes across as tenuous and underdeveloped. Oddly enough, it’s not the relationships that stand out for me when I think of the film, but the glorious yellow sundress worn by Mae in Louisiana. It glows in the light and that’s the image that is going to stick in my mind when the relationships in this story have faded away. If only the romances were as memorable…