Dramatizing the first date between Michelle Robinson and
Barack Obama in Chicago during the summer of 1989, “Southside with You” is
basically an origin story, showing us who these people were before they became
President and First Lady of the United States. It’s a nice hook, and the film
avoids turning into a cheap gimmick by playing first and foremost as a smart,
simple romance.
“Southside with You” doesn’t concern itself with politics, but
rather opts for something more in the vein of Richard Linklater’s “Before”
films, as we sit back and watch as two people walk, talk, and fall in love. For
the most part, it thankfully refrains from hitting us over the head with
obvious foreshadowing: “Why, I’d bet you’d make a great president one day! (wink-wink-nudge-nudge).”
Michelle is an attorney at a corporate law firm; still
enrolled at Harvard Law, Barack is the firm’s summer associate. For most of the
day, she refuses to refer to the time they’re spending together as a date.
Already facing an uphill battle to be taken seriously as a black woman in a
mostly white environment, Michelle views any romantic involvement as entirely
unprofessional. She prefers to think of their meet-up as simply an opportunity
to get to know one another as colleagues. Barack does what he can to soften her
resolve, working hard to win her over through sheer force of charm.
We follow them through the course of the afternoon and into
the evening, going from an Ernie Barnes exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago
to a community organizers’ meeting (where Barack gives a galvanizing speech to
the assembled), then a showing of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” followed by
ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. In refusing to turn into a traditional
presidential biopic by focusing on the period before politics took center
stage, the film humanizes its subjects — right down to the rusted out floor of
Barack’s car.
Tika Sumpter
(“Ride Along”) and relative newcomer Parker Sawyers are both quite good as
Michelle and Barack. The two actors have an appealing, unforced chemistry
together, and we immediately buy them as a couple. A dead-ringer for Obama,
Sawyers nails the cadence the country has grown familiar with over the last
eight years while capturing the man’s singular charisma, successfully moving
his performance beyond mere impersonation.
The script, by writer-director Richard Tanne
(making his feature debut), can be a little too neat, leaning heavily on Barack
and Michelle’s clash of personalities, but he brings a lovely, unhurried tone
to the film, letting the audience merely enjoy the company. Ditching the
will-they-won’t-they mystery of most romantic comedies is clearly the right
choice, since we’re pretty certain we know how things turn out.
This article appears in Aug 24-30, 2016.
