The Photograph Best Quotes – ‘I want to try to be together.’

Starring: Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield, Chelsea Peretti, Lil Rel Howery, Courtney B. Vance, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Chante Adams, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Y’lan Noel

OUR RATING: ★★★½

Story:

Romantic drama written and directed by Stella Meghie. We follow series of intertwining love stories set in the past and in the present, about forgiveness, and about finding the courage to seek the truth, no matter where it may lead you.

Our Favorite Quotes:

Best Quotes

[1989; we see Christina being filmed]
Billy: What are you thinking?
Christina: That I wish I was as good at love as I am at working. I wish I didn’t leave people behind so often.

[referring to Christina]
Isaac Jefferson: We lost contact after she took off, or I let her leave. Thirty years later, still trying to figure that out.
Michael Block: Well, why don’t you just look her up?
Isaac Jefferson: Too much time done passed. I don’t recommend getting older. Less people to talk to, more time to go over every regret.

[Mae reads from the letter her mother, Christina, left her after her death]
Christina: My Mae, cancer is a creature lurching through my body. I waited far too long to face it squarely. I need to write my way out of the mess I’ve made. I hope you won’t judge me too harshly. Sometimes the heart can be so full of love, it’s like a weight on your chest making it impossible to move. That’s how I felt when I was with him.

[after they’ve met up in person and Michael shows her the photo of Christina on his phone]
Michael Block: He said the relationship ended after she left Louisiana.
Mae: Well, she wasn’t good at staying anywhere. Or with anyone. Ask my father.
Michael Block: Maybe we shouldn’t be good at staying places.
Mae: That sounds very mobile.
Michael Block: Well, maybe.
Mae: So I take it you’re not walking down any aisles anytime soon?
Michael Block: No. Uh, what about you?
Mae: Me? I broke up with my last boyfriend after he proposed.
Michael Block: You got commitment issues?
Mae: [laughs] Wow! Tact.

[referring to her mother, Christina]
Mae: What if I’m just like her?
Louis: You’re not.

[referring to Christina’s letter]
Louis: Did you read the letter?
Mae: I couldn’t at first. I just don’t understand why she couldn’t tell me about her life when she was still alive.
Louis: Maybe to help you look at her in another way.
Mae: What other way?
Louis: She wasn’t just your mother. At some point, you’re going to have to forgive her, and realize she was just a woman, with flaws.
Mae: A lot of flaws.
Louis: Yeah.

Asia: [to Michael] You hungry?
Kyle: Why would you ask him that? Don’t give him no food. We don’t need to feed him.
Asia: [laughs] Why not?
Kyle: What you mean, “Why not?” First of all, he a grown man, okay? And groceries are expensive.

[referring to Mae]
Kyle: You trying to date somebody again?
Michael Block: It ain’t my fault I meet people while I work. And she’s interesting, you know?
Kyle: Oh, so she’s interesting?
Michael Block: Yeah. She’s got a lot to unpack. Her mom just died.
Kyle: So you’re attracted to her because her mama died?
Michael Block: No.

[Michael is listening to his recorded interview with Isaac]
Isaac Jefferson: I didn’t know much about photography when she started taking pictures, but I knew I liked the way she saw me. Better than I really was. My ego probably held me back the most, why I couldn’t make it work with Christina. I didn’t know how to be with a woman that I had to keep up with.
Michael Block: What would you have done differently?
Isaac Jefferson: I would have gone after her.

[after Michael sees Mae at a movie screening; referring to the article he’s doing on Christina]
Mae: How’s your article coming?
Michael Block: It’s alright, you know. It’s kind of moving slowly.
Mae: How come?
Michael Block: Because, well, you know, sometimes good things take time to develop.

Mae: What did you think about the movie?
Michael Block: To be honest, I was a little distracted.
Mae: What?
Michael Block: So I kept running back in my mind how you might respond to me asking you for a drink after.
Mae: So that was you asking me? That was elaborate.
Michael Block: In my mind, it wasn’t that forward. You know, it was more smoother than that.

[on their date]
Michael Block: I don’t want to say the same thing that I’ve said to another woman. You know?
Mae: Are there a lot of other women?
Michael Block: No, there’s a lot of first dates.
Mae: Yeah, I’m terrible at first dates. I just, no, I just don’t know whether to be vulnerable, aloof, funny.
Michael Block: Why don’t you just be yourself?
Mae: I don’t know who that is.

Mae: You ever wonder if we’re just who we’re around in the moment?
Michael Block: I would think that it’s important that we pay attention to who we surround ourselves with then.

[as Michael is staring at her]
Mae: What?
Michael Block: I’m wondering if it’s not too early in the night to kiss you.
[Michael leans in and they kiss]
Mae: It wasn’t too early.
Michael Block: Ah. I see.
[they both start laughing]

[referring to kissing Michael on their date]
Rachel: What was it like?
Mae: I don’t know. It felt like we’d kissed before. Yeah, and he called me right after.
Rachel: To say what?
Mae: To say that he thought that I was…
Rachel: Thought that you were what?
Mae: Special.
[Rachel laughs]
Mae: See? This is why I can’t tell you anything. I knew I shouldn’t have told you.

Mae: Come over here and dance with me.
Michael Block: No.
Mae: Really?
Michael Block: No, you come back over here. Please come back over here.
[she walks over to him slowly]
Michael Block: Why you got your head down like you’re praying?
Mae: Because I might need to.
Michael Block: What would you pray for?
Mae: Willpower.
Michael Block: Why don’t we just blame it on the storm?

Asia: Why do you look like that?
Michael Block: Look like what?
[referring to Mae]
Asia: Like you have a concussion. Or like she’s Yoruba and knows voodoo.
Michael Block: Okay.
Kyle: Mm-hmm. Look at him, baby. He’s in love.
Michael Block: I never said that, alright?
Kyle: Brother, you ain’t got to say it. I can see it all over your face with that sappy-a** look. It’s embarrassing.
Asia: Leave him alone.
Michael Block: Yeah, leave me alone.

[referring to Mae]
Michael Block: First of all, she’s not Yoruba.
Asia: And what’s that got to do with anything? I just meant that she was really nice.
Michael Block: Yeah.
Asia: And you seem smitten.
Michael Block: Okay.
Asia: Look at her with the babies.
Kyle: Alright. Don’t gas him up, because he’s probably going to f**k it up.
Michael Block: Maybe I won’t. You don’t know that.
Kyle: I’m pretty sure about that.

[to Mae; referring to Michael]
Kyle: He’s very smart, but he do dumb stuff.

Michael Block: So how about you tell me what you do to keep, you know, whatever you got going on, going?
Asia: I mean, listen.
Kyle: We talk about other people. That makes us happy, actually.
Michael Block: Ah, clearly.
Kyle: We go people watching. That’s what we do.
Asia: He keeps me laughing. And really, if it weren’t for streaming, divorce would be right around the corner.
[she laughs]
Kyle: Wait, you would leave me if we couldn’t stream movies?
Asia: Baby, I’m joking.

[to Mae and Michael]
Asia: What did y’all do when the power went out today?
Mae: Um…
Asia: Yeah. Okay, well, next topic.
Kyle: Okay.
Michael Block: What are all those sounds about?
Kyle: Yeah, I mean, you know, she did the little sip and smile thing, like…
Asia: Leave her alone.
Kyle: But we’re all grown. Look, if y’all did it, y’all did it. It ain’t a big thing.
Asia: Stop!
Kyle: People do it all the time. This is the best do-it weather.

[in flashback]
Christina: Don’t you want more than this?
Young Isaac: What do you mean?
Christina: More than what we have.
Young Isaac: No. I want you. I want to be married to you.
Christina: I’m not ready to get married.

Young Isaac: What more do you want?
Christina: I want people to know who I am, admire my photographs. I love you, but my greatest accomplishment each day cannot be cooking your dinner.
Young Isaac: I have never understood how to make you happy.

[Michael is listening to his recorded interview with Isaac]
Isaac Jefferson: Maybe I moved on because I was scared I couldn’t make Christina happy.
Michael Block: What happened?
Isaac Jefferson: I was afraid of failing her, that she’d resent me eventually.

[after Michael decided to accept a new job in London]
Kyle: Man, why you doing it?
Michael Block: What? You’re the one who told me not to get involved, remember? You said…
[imitates Kyle’s voice]
Michael Block: “Don’t get involved.”
Kyle: Okay, I didn’t. First of all, I don’t sound like a mad scientist. That’s not how I talk. And look, I know what I said. I said don’t get involved too quickly.
Michael Block: Alright. Okay. Semantics.
Kyle: Because that’s what you usually do. No, you always move into stuff fast. I was just being honest with you.

[after Michael’s told her he’s going to London for his new job]
Mae: So what do we do now?
Michael Block: I don’t know. Figure it out.
Mae: How?
Michael Block: Well, I can go to, I can come to New York, and you can come to London. And we could go back and forth and we figure it out.
Mae: It’s not practical.
Michael Block: I know. I’m not trying to be practical right now. I want to be with you.

Mae: Long distance never works.
Michael Block: What?
Mae: It never works.
Michael Block: Well, be optimistic! Come on.
Mae: I don’t want to get together just to break up. I’m being honest.
Michael Block: Honest?
Mae: Yeah. I forgot, you have trouble being honest.
Michael Block: Okay, so what is that supposed to mean?
Mae: Aren’t you always searching for something honest to say to a woman?
Michael Block: Well, that’s what I’m doing right now. Alright? I’m being honest, and I’m saying I want to try to be together.
Mae: Maybe we should just enjoy being here.

[referring to Michael]
Isaac Jefferson: Why you didn’t leave with him?
Mae: Because I wanted to stay longer.
Isaac Jefferson: I feel like that’s not the whole story.
Mae: It’s most of it.

Isaac Jefferson: I guess you more than look like your mother.
Mae: Yeah, I’m probably more like her than I’d like to be.
Isaac Jefferson: That’s not a bad thing. She was unwavering in everything she wanted.
Mae: How could you say that, after everything?
Isaac Jefferson: I don’t blame her for leaving.

[referring to Christina]
Mae: What did she say? What did the letter say?
Isaac Jefferson: She apologized. She kept you from me for so long, she didn’t know how to go back, how to tell me. She asked me to take care of you.

[referring to Christina’s letter]
Mae: I keep rereading mine. She wrote over and over again, “My Mae.” I keep reading those two words, like they’re evidence that she loved me.
Isaac Jefferson: She did. Very much.

[Mae reads Christina’s letter]
Christina: “My Mae, I didn’t know how to love you except by showing you the arc of a woman, by being a good provider. I put my love into work, my photographs. Pictures took space in my heart instead of people. It was the only way I could love. I was stumbling through my own life, trying not to break apart. I wish I had put as much courage into being your mother as I was able to put in my work.

[referring to Rachel’s relationship with Andy]
Mae: I’m uncomfortable with how happy you are.
Rachel: How do you think I feel? Being unhappy, and jaded, it’s comfortable, but…
Mae: But?
Rachel: I like him, and maybe I’m not who I thought I was. Maybe I’m different with him.
Mae: So you’re choosing to be a different person?
Rachel: I don’t know. I’m just choosing to be with him.

Rachel: What about you?
Mae: I think I messed that up. It’s like I said the opposite of everything that I wanted to say to him.
Rachel: Well, what did you want to say?
Mae: That I wanted him to stay.
Rachel: Can you still tell him that?
Mae: I don’t know. He looked at me like he was so disappointed. I don’t know, I felt like I couldn’t ask him to rearrange his life for me. It’s too late. It’s, whatever.

Andy: I read your article on Pointe à la Hache.
Michael Block: What did you think?
Andy: It was personal.
Michael Block: I know. Probably too personal. It became all about me and my stuff.
Andy: It’s not often you meet someone like that.
Michael Block: Yeah, I know. Christina and Isaac, man, that’s an anomaly.
Andy: I’m talking about Mae.

[after Mae and Michael meet up to go see Kendrick Lamar together]
Michael Block: I guess I’m lucky that, you know, he was performing here tonight.
Mae: And I really wanted to see you.
Michael Block: I’ve been wanting to see you too.
Mae: I’m sorry for not knowing what to say before you left. I just didn’t know how to tell you how I felt. And I think I’m not used to needing anyone.
Michael Block: Yeah. I get that.
Mae: But I need you. And I don’t care where you live. I just want to be close to you as much as possible. I don’t want to be practical. I want to figure it out. And I don’t want so much time to pass that we can’t come back. And I don’t want…
[Michael kisses her]

[last lines; after they’ve kissed]
Michael Block: You know, we’ll always come back.
Mae: Really?
Michael Block: You know that.
Mae: How’s London?
Michael Block: Uh, I’ve just been out here being pathetic, thinking about you.
Mae: Good.
[they both laugh then kiss again]
Michael Block: You want to go hear some music?
Mae: Yeah.
Michael Block: Come on.
[he takes her hand and head towards the show]
Michael Block: We have a show to see!

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