"One of the reasons that the film works as well is because they've shown us so much of themselves over the past eight, 10, 12 years when they've been in the limelight," said Sawyers. Most of all, the movie does its job because it gives us more of a couple that people already feel like they know and appreciate. The film does its best to mirror their actual first date from what the first couple has described before, we know they went to an art exhibit, had lunch at the art institute, took a walk, went to the movies, and had ice cream. "You can see where that sort of attitude in politics, or wherever - it can take you really far," said Sawyers. It all comes to a head when Barack revisits the community organizing group in Chicago where he used to work and gives a rousing speech encouraging the audience to imagine walking in somebody else's shoes to understand where they're coming from. They make each other uncomfortable with these discussions but push one another to complex realizations. The characters reach emotional highs and lows when they talk about the absence of Barack's father and Michelle's desire to do something more meaningful with her life besides working at a corporate firm. We see this shine through in various moments of the film, like when Michelle spontaneously joins a drum circle and dances at the park outside the art exhibit and we see it today in real life, be it through Michelle's viral Carpool Karaoke video or when she learns how to Snapchat from the guys who started the Running Man Challenge or when she dances with a 106-year-old woman during Black History Month at the White House. She had this thing about her from the beginning." "People loved her, like loved her in school, high school, and her magnet school that she went to. From all the accounts that I read, when she walked in a room, it was like, 'Who's that girl?'" she said. "I didn't know she was that confident at such a young age. "So you think I'm cute?" Barack answers, making light of the moment.įor Sumpter, Michelle's contagious personality left a lasting impression. She doesn't want to be taken less seriously if she starts dating the first cute black guy who comes in. A striking moment in the movie comes when Michelle tells Barack why she's hesitant to date him in the first place: it's hard for women to make a name for themselves at the firm, but she has to work twice as hard to earn respect as a black woman. Of course we don't know if some of the details and dialogue actually happened, but we can imagine the truth to it. I mean, I knew she was smart, I knew that she was his equal, but I didn't know perhaps she surpassed intelligence." (Michelle earned her undergrad degree from Princeton when she was 21 and her law degree from Harvard at 24.) "It's hugely impressive. I'm surprised, I didn't realize she graduated Harvard at probably 23, 24, if she was a second-year law associate at 25 years old," he said. When we chatted with Sawyers, he said the most surprising thing he learned in his film research was how accomplished she was. One of the biggest takeaways from the film is how much we learn about Michelle. The film has already gotten glowing reviews and became a hit when it showed at the Sundance Film Festival. It's even more impressive when you learn they only had about a month and a half to prepare for the role by poring over old videos and books about the two. Sumpter and Sawyers do an incredible job of capturing the mannerisms and speech patterns of the first couple without overdoing it or making it feel comedic rather than genuine. It stars Tika Sumpter as Michelle and Parker Sawyers as Barack and was produced by John Legend (as well as Sumpter) with directing credit going to Richard Tanne. A rom-com about the Obamas might sound cheesy, but the crew pulls it off.
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