WHAT’S IT ABOUT
A sweeping love story about forgiveness, and about finding the courage to seek the truth, no matter where it may lead you.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
It’s been a while since the last decent Black love story so The Photograph didn’t need to worry about meeting any high expectations. The producers must have known this because the film never reaches its full potential. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good movie, it’s just not a great movie. By comparison to similar films such as Love Jones (1997) or Love & Basketball (2000), this film can’t compete. The chemistry between the daughter of a famous photographer, Mae Morton, and a journalist named Michael Block started out like most real relationships may have but quickly turns into what a woman would find in the pages of a romance novel. Everything from the dialog to the mannerism was straight out of a love story. In other words, nearly all women will love this film. For the rest of the audience, The Photograph is very slow and unfocused. For the most part, moving along slowly had to be intentional since multiples stories are being told throughout the film and none of them reach a satisfactory ending. There’s the mother, Christina Eames. She’s the catalyst for the whole thing and the start of many flashbacks from the past. Her story of love or the lack thereof is told throughout the film. Her daughter, Mae, finds pictures from her mother’s history along with a letter for her and her father. As much as this was supposed to be the main story, it felt like just another story added to the list. The journalist has a story, the father has a story, and none of these should exist. The only reason there are there is that the main story is sorely lacking in content and interest. As I stated above, it is a good movie, and sadly, there is a lack of this genre within the Black community but that doesn’t mean we should settle for anything because we have nothing else. My advice, watch a classic love story until the home release of The Photograph comes out.
OUR RATING – A SO-SO 7
Media
- Genre – Romance
- Street date
- Digital – April 28th 2019
- DVD/Blu-Ray – May 12th 2019
- Video – 1080p
- Screen size – 2:39.1
- Sound – English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
- Subtitles – English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras
- Shooting THE PHOTOGRAPH
• Culture in Film
• The Film Through Photographs