There is a movie star moment that sticks out in Eugene Ashe’s “Sylvie’s Love.” The title character, portrayed by Tessa Thompson, slowly glides across her unrealistically large Manhattan office and sits down in her new desk and chair. Sylvia’s childhood dream has come true. She’s now working in television and has hit the big time. She looks on point. The music is on point. The set is on point for a Hollywood drama from the ‘60s. And Ashe and Thompson play the moment out for all its worth. It, for lack of a better word, pops. That’s why it’s ultimately disappointing that the rest of the bumpy road “Love” travels feels slightly underwhelming.
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Ashe, who previously directed the 2012 indie “Homecoming,” has impressive intentions. His vision for this particular drama is to make a period romance with an African-American cast that Hollywood wouldn’t touch in 1960 let alone 2020. The storyline he’s fashioned is initially quite easy to follow. A younger Sylvie works in her father’s Jazz record store in Harlem in the 1950s. She meets Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha), a saxophonist in an up and coming jazz quartet. The script indicates a spark followed by a summer of unabashed romance. But before you know it (frankly, not soon enough by the film’s pacing) he’s off on a European tour. She says goodbye to him with a major secret that isn’t the fact she’s already engaged to a soldier overseas (Regé-Jean Page). Years later, the pair reunite after a chance encounter with a married Sylvie now busy with that dream job and a young child while Robert’s once-promising career in flux. Dare we ask, can they find a way to have it all?
It’s a familiar melodramatic premise that teases that it wants to aim for something more but can’t stick a proper tonal landing. The first half of the picture is something of a slog mostly because Thompson and Asomugha have almost zero romantic chemistry on screen. And, trust us, Thompson is more than trying to conjure up something with her co-star. As the film continues it becomes obvious that Asomugha, who is also a producer on the film, is just inherently miscast. For a Sundance indie, it also suffers from being staged on so many Hollywood backlots. That might be inherent to the stylistic choice Ashe has made, but with so few extras you’d think the entire population of Harlem was hiding out in a fallout shelter or something.
The second half of the film is a marked improvement only because of the focus on Sylvie’s television career and her organic conflict with a husband who prefers she stays at home to support his own burgeoning sales career. The scenes on the set of the cooking show Sylvie works on bring the film into a new light thanks to a scene-stealing Wendi McLendon-Covey as its saucy host. Sylvie’s adult life is also more inherently glamorous allowing Mayne Berke’s production design and Phoenix Mellow’s costumes to shine. And, as noted earlier, Thompson has much more air to give Sylvie long sumptuous pauses in the most opportune moments. It also doesn’t hurt that she’s assisted by lush orchestrations whipped up by composer Fabrice Lecomte, but it does often seem that she’s carrying to much of the movie on her more than stylish shoulders.
Despite Thompson’s efforts, “Sylvie’s Love” eventually collapses under too many plot mechanisms. Ashe began his creative life in the music world and he wants to ingrain it with everything from jazz to the early days of Motown. There’s even a Latin number performed admirably by Eva Longoria. It may look impressively authentic for a studio production of the era, but there’s a line between melodrama and soap opera. By the final act, it’s so close to going over the top that you wonder (or wish?) if the late, great Diahann Carroll is going to burst into Sylvie’s office to tell her to get her life together.
Moreover, the most distressing aspect of the picture is that every time the film turns away from Sylvia’s life it’s hard not to lose interest. Robert is an honorable character, but does Sylvia really need him or her husband? That’s clearly not the message Ashe is trying to convey, but maybe that would have been a better twist on the proceedings. [C+]