Sylvie’s Love is the quintessential love story that is reminiscent of 1950s Hollywood filmmaking. A young woman meets a musician in her father’s music store, there is instant chemistry, a whirlwind romance and both end up going their separate ways. But this is a story about unrequited love that follows them through their life and the idea of “what if”…
Directed by Eugene Ashe, Sylvie’s Love, is a beautiful love story about Sylvie Parker (Tessa Thompson) and the love and passion that continues over the years for jazz musician Robert Halloway (Nnamdi Asomugha). Sylvie and Robert met while working at a music store in Harlem and it is a love that never extinguished.
Written by Eugene Ashe, this is a story about a strong woman of color who goes out into the world and succeeds, she is determined with what she wants to achieve and goes out and does it, in a time when society dictated otherwise. But one thing that she does hold dear to her heart is the flame she carries for an old lover and she just can’t seem to shake that feeling.
What is remarkable about this film is that it is a story about people of color set in a period of time when life was known to be difficult, mind you things aren’t any better now in 2021, but this is a romanticized version of what life is like for people of color in the 1950s without focusing on the institutionalized racism and just telling an old fashioned love story from a female perspective.
Sylvie’s Love is produced in such a way that it fits into the old romantic style of filmmaking. There is something so cliched about this story but also amazing that it looks like it could have been made by film legend Douglas Sirk, but it hasn’t and more stories like these need to be created for the screen.
Nnamdi Asomugha as Robert Halloway is a man who loves his jazz music, he has a driving passion to be a musician who happens to fall in love along the way. Asomugha portrays a strong individual who is still holding the flame for someone he met years earlier. It is a genuine performance that is believable.
Tessa Thompson as Sylvie Parker is something of a driving force behind this film. The portrayal of this character shows the determination of a young woman who wants to succeed, even becoming a single mother as she is not wanting to compromise herself or the goals she has set. Thompson’s performance is remarkable and noteworthy as there is something about this characterization that keeps you engaged and falling in love with the idea of love.
If you like the old idea of romance and holding onto the flame for a past love then you’ll enjoy Sylvie’s Love.
But you’ll also like Sylvie’s Love if you are a fan of old Hollywood filmmaking from a previous generation.
But what you’ll love about this film is it is a story about a strong determined woman of color who has a dream and idea for herself and is able to achieve it without compromising herself as history would generally dictate to any woman who lived in the 1950s.
Sylvie’s Love is available on Amazon Prime.
