By Hannah Crooks
A 27-year-old Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) strolls up the driveway of his non-date, Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter), meeting her on the side of the house as she exits from the backdoor of the quaint brick home. They stare at each other for a few moments, maybe contemplating what to say, when Robinson breaks the silence. “You’re late,” she says. He sighs and with a semi-nervous grin, responds, “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.” Giving a small smile back, she counters, “I expected it. You were late for your first day of work.”
The two spend the day together, despite Robinson’s original plan of simply attending a short community event with him. She continually shuts down his insistence that they are, in fact, on a date, but never in a biting way. As a black woman working at a law firm, she informs Obama that dating him, a summer associate at the same firm, would debilitate her credibility and would be entirely inappropriate. After much back and forth, Obama more or less gives up: “OK, it’s not a date … until you say it is.”
This banter introduces the romantic drama Southside With You, written and directed by Richard Tanne. The film will be screened at FilmScene as part of the Bijou Film Forum at 6 p.m. today. Southside With You was selected to celebrate Black History Month and to develop a platform to discuss the current political climate.
While the narrative focuses on former President Obama and now-Michelle Obama, the film is laced less with politics and more with the budding relationship between two people who work at the same firm. Southside With You strips away this political side of their lives (for the most part) and leaves the audience with the story of two human beings. It transforms the awe-inspiring tale of the country’s power couple into an equally exquisite, down-to-earth love story.
Of course, through use of heartfelt speeches and a downright adorable scene involving Baskin-Robbins, there is foreshadowing for what we already know: The two get married and ultimately become the president and first lady.
But the viewers already know the ending, and rather than revealing at the finish that the couple gets together, we go into the film having this information. Instead, the layers of their personalities are peeled back to show a more intimate side of their past that cameras don’t normally have the opportunity to see.
Sumpter does a phenomenal job portraying Robinson’s grace and composure. Perfectly matching her eloquent poise and her seriousness to be treated as a professional. However, we do get to see her let her hair down — figuratively; her updo never flinches throughout the film — as she dances in a drum circle and once in a while even reciprocates Obama’s flirting.
Even better than Sumpter’s is Sawyers’s performance. He enchants the viewers with his charming, relaxed demeanor almost identical to that of Obama. He exudes confidence, even as he picks Robinson up in his rusty little car with a jerky seat belt and a hole in the floor. The audience also gets the treat of hearing his trademark speech-making ability, which Sawyers executes impeccably. As the film progresses, Robinson digs further into his past, particularly his relationship with his father, and as she gets to know him, both she and the audience begin to fall for him.