Photograph

A mother's romantic regret inspires her daughter to take a risk in writer/director Stella Meghie's earnest if slightly underwhelming drama, which looks to The Notebook for inspiration yet retains its own flavour. Museum curator Mae (Issa Rae) and reporter Michael (LaKeith Stanfield) meet following the death of Mae's photographer mother Christina (played as a young woman by Chanté Adams), and the film flits between the pair's faltering courtship and a decades-old love affair involving Christina. Cast interestingly against type (the pair are more often seen in comic roles), Rae and Stanfield are credible, just not as a couple. Largely avoiding overt sentimentality, the film can feel flat, but an abundantly talented supporting cast (which includes Kelvin Harrison Jr, Chelsea Peretti, Teyonah Parris and Lil Rel Howery) brings script-enhancing spark and nuance to proceedings. The Photograph is a tad chaste for a film about passion, while the mystery element doesn't exactly fly, but it's likeable, sporadically witty and sumptuously shot in a range of glamorous and characterful New York and New Orleans locations. It undoubtedly has the look of love; it's just a shame about the chemistry.