The new movie “The Photograph” is about life’s many trade-offs. Do I take that risky job that may not work out, to realize my life long dream or take the safer route and be happy in my personal life but miserable in my professional life. If I get married now, what will this mean to my professional future and perhaps being able to retire young, much later in life or maybe never. All of us face these questions, challenges and decisions about what direction we are going, every day. Life is not an Excel spreadsheet where we can do “what-if” analysis and instantly know if that decision is ultimately the correct one. Life is a crap shoot for most of us and we all hope that the decisions we make will ultimately make us happy in the long term.

The Photograph is one of the few movies I have seen that is entirely about the consequences of life decisions within 2 stories about a woman who meets a man she eventually dates in the present day. Versus her mother 30 years earlier who falls in love but decides to make entirely different life choices based on her dream of being a Photographer in New York. This very well written story teaches us that at a minimum we can learn from the life decisions of our parents or other people to help us decide what is the right choice to make in our own lives..

The Photograph stars newcomers LaKeith Stanfield and Issa Rae who both do an outstanding job with this very well written screenplay. The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a solid 76% and I agree with this rating and recommend this film.