Directing: B+
Acting: B+
Writing: B
Cinematography: B+
Editing: B+

I can’t remember where I read that The Photograph was being called “The black Notebook,” but I feel compelled to dispel that comparison right out of the gate. Full disclosure, I never saw The Notebook—because it looked like a steaming turd of a movie to me. A treacly-sentimental romance, sure, and plenty of people go for that sort of thing, but it clearly wasn’t for me.

I might not have expected The Photograph to be for me either, but every once in a while a romance piques my interest. It makes a huge difference that this one stars Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield, in both cases demonstrating impressive range just by being in this movie. They also happen to have great chemistry, in this movie that is as sensual and sexy as it is romantic. The plot features flashbacks narrated by the writer of a letter detailing her own sad love story, and this couple is played by Chanté Adams and Y’lan Noel, with nearly the same level of sensuousness.

Issa Rae plays Mae, and LaKeith Stanfield is Michael. The letter writer, Christina, is Mae’s mother, having recently died of cancer. She left a letter for both Mae and for her father, asking her to read her own letter first. Michael is a journalist who meets Mae indirectly through Isaac (Rob Morgan), who was Christian’s long-ago lover, still living in New Orleans where Michael travels to interview him or a story. Michael is interested in photography, notices the good work in photographs displayed in Isaac’s house, including a rare photograph of the photographer herself: Christina. Ostensibly it’s the story behind this photograph that we are being told, although taken more literally, this movie might more accurately have been called The Letter. But, it’s not as easy to use a photo as a flashback device with voiceover narration.

This all sounds like the setup for a movie that is just as overly sentimental as any, maybe even a tearjerker. But that’s what sets The Photograph above other romances, as it is neither of those things. It does have both its sentimental and sad moments, but writer-director Stella Meghie never dwells on them unnecessarily, instead moving the story forward.

The tone of this film is slightly uneven in just a few scenes, but not nearly to the extent that some reviews might have you believe. Honestly, if you enjoy romances, you will enjoy this movie—and this one is better than most. I have very few nits to pick with it. Maybe just that, in the flashback scenes, Christina’s mother is constantly exasperated with her in ways that never quite seem justified. Young Isaac has no apparent prospects or ambition, and Christina’s mother therefore apparently finds him worthless since he can’t “take care of her.” Not interested in being taken care of, Christian buses off to New York to pursue a career in photography. Good for her! In the meantime, Isaac spends a lifetime regretting not following her there.

The Photograph explores a lot about how we fear becoming our parents, and Mae has grown up feeling largely neglected by her mother, and now has difficulty staying committed in relationships. Michael is similarly noncommittal in most relationships, but of course, meeting each other is what alters their relationship worldviews. All of this stuff is pretty minor, and what passes in this movie for “conflict” is a whole lot of not much. But, so what? This movie is not made for people looking for melodrama or histrionics; it’s for romantics, pure and simple. On that front, this movie more than delivers. The Photograph is a film full of love and affection, and people just trying to figure it out, trying to do better than those who went before them. It features lush cinematography—and photography—that has you leaving the theater feeling warm fuzzies, thinking about the comfort that comes with being in the arms of someone you love.

*They’ll warm your heart as they warm each other’s.*

Overall: B+