SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU – Review

SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU is about the day-long first date of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The story takes place in Chicago in 1989, when she was a junior lawyer in a respected law firm and he was a summer intern from Harvard. It is a sweet, romantic little film with a touch of biography mixed in.

This is a modest little low-budget film but one with an endearing heart. Still, there is something a bit odd about seeing this kind of film about a sitting president. It is the kind of film one is more likely to see about a president long gone, much less still in office. For that reason, there will be people who want to see it as political. It isn’t really, beyond reflecting the Obamas’ own values and basically the fact that Barack Obama is our first black president.

Obviously, this is not a film for anyone who dislikes President Obama. Yet with President Obama’s popularity running high in his last year in office, it seems safe to say that there will be an audience for this sentimental, gentle, thoughtful film.

Tika Sumpter plays Michelle Robinson and Parker Sawyers plays Barack Obama. Sumpter looks a bit more like the really First Lady than Sawyers does President Obama but both do a good job of capturing their cadence of speech and little gestures. The story follows the pair from when they are getting ready, and through the day visiting the Chicago Museum of Art, a community organizing meeting, going to see Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” and finally a stop at an ice cream shop. Michelle insists it is not a date, and Barack reluctantly agrees to that, or at least until she is willing to call it a date.

These two people seem to have little in common. Michelle is careful to always be neatly dressed, takes pride in her straight-A school record and generally is everything her working-class, hard-working parents could dream of in a daughter. Her perfect outfit contrasts visually with the car that Barack picks her up in, a rundown clunker with a hole in the floor, through which she can see the roadway. It says something about her careful character that she notices this but says nothing. Barack looks perfectly presentable but he puts out his cigarette before walking to Michelle’s parents’ door to pick her up. His background is more complicated than her perfect-daughter one, but he is determined to win her over.

The community meeting at a church on Chicago’s Southside reveals the common values they share, and convinces Michelle to not reject this young black man with the funny name out of hand. Throughout the day, they talk about their families and their dreams, capping the day with ice cream and their first kiss.

Michelle’s resistance to the date adds a little romantic comedy touch but the film is mostly a warm but serious film. If you had not been warmed by the Obamas’ personal stories before, this charmer of a film may change that.

Richard Tanne wrote and directed this film, with includes an original song by John Legend and clips of Spike Lee’s film. Vanessa Bell Calloway plays Michelle’s mother and much of the film was shot on location in Chicago, even in some places the Obamas visited. However, the neighborhoods are shown from the view of families who live there, in a warm, soft light, rather than through a lens of stereotypes about disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The film runs a brief 84 minutes, and although viewers may know the basic outlines of the Obamas’ story, this film fills in some details about both of them and about their romance. And at heart, this film is a romance.

The scene where the pair visit the art museum also serves as a kind of spot light for the paintings of Ernie Barnes, featured in the art exhibit the couple visit at the museum. Barnes’ paintings, filled with long-limbed African American characters, color and energy feature scenes of typical black life in his era, and add a nice touch. They also are shown with the closing credits as well, along with an original song from John Legend.

Naturally, the film puts the couple in a rosey light – this is a romance film – and some things are left out of the film, which seems appropriate because, after all, this is the current President and First Lady. While we do see Parker Sawyer as Barack Obama smoking cigarettes,  no one calls him Barry, an earlier nickname he dropped, not even his grandmother who calls him from Hawaii before the date. On the other hand, the film does not dodge some of his less sterling high school missteps. Including a few youthful flaws actually improves the film’s human warmth.

SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU is a warm little film, a sweet parting gift to the President and his First Lady and to the country as his era comes to a close.

Rating: 3  1/2 out of 5 stars

SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU opens Friday, August 26th at the Tivoli.