MMT Minute Thoughts on SYLVIE’S LOVE

“But that is love, to give away everything, to sacrifice everything — without the slightest desire to get anything in return.”

Albert Camus

I watched a gorgeous film last night called SYLVIE’S LOVE which is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video. I was a little bummed prior because I was given a screener link almost two weeks ago, but when I tried to view last weekend my link was expired – which impacted me getting up a review before today, but I wanted to share a few thoughts, nonetheless.

Here’s the synopsis: In Sylvie’s Love, the jazz is smooth and the air sultry in the hot New York summer of 1957. Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha), a saxophonist, spends late nights playing behind a less talented but well-known bandleader, as member of a jazz quartet. Sylvie (Tessa Thompson), who dreams of a career in television, spends her summer days helping around her father’s record store, as she waits for her fiancé to return from war. When Robert takes a part-time job at the record store, the two begin a friendship that sparks a deep passion in each of them unlike anything they have felt before. As the summer winds down, life takes them in different directions, bringing their relationship to an end. Years pass, Sylvie’s career as a TV producer blossoms, while Robert must come to terms with what the age of Motown is doing to the popularity of Jazz. In a chance meeting, Sylvie and Robert cross paths again, only to find that while their lives have changed, their feelings for each other remain the same. Writer/director Eugene Ashe combines romance and music into a sweeping story that brings together changing times, a changing culture, and
the true price of love.

The opening sequence is the most beautiful one I’ve witnessed in 2020. Nancy Wilson serenades the audience as lead characters Sylvie Parker (Tessa Thompson) and Robert Holloway (Nnamdi Asomugha), who have a serendipitous run-in before the movie travels back five years prior, are introduced.

In those five years, the audience comes to experience the impetus and blossoming of the duo’s romance, and the circumstances that have kept them apart prior to their unexpected meeting. Once reunited, the pair faces several obstacles that hinder its desire to come, and stay, together for the long haul.

With a magnificent soundtrack, filled with jazz, R & B, and popular music from the 50’s and 60’s, “Sylvie’s Love” is both an aural and visual feast of the period with its costuming, settings, and overall style.

And the story of two people journeying to find personal fulfillment and love – and to love someone enough to let them go when needed – is one that many, not just romantics, can relate.

If you enjoy solid storytelling, and love or romance stories, you should definitely add this one to the watch queue. I rate it 4 out of 5 on the MMTrometer.

Until next thought, Thomasena

SYLVIE’S LOVE

Written and Directed by: Eugene Ashe
Starring: Tessa Thompson, Nnamdi Asomugha, Aja Naomi King, Jemima Kirke,
Tone Bell, Alano Miller, Erica Gimpel, Ryan Michelle Bathe and Lance Reddick
with Wendi McLendon Covey and Eva Longoria
RT: 110 minutes
December 23rd, 2020 on Amazon Prime Video