Tale of two women
Comedy-drama “Albany Road” screened at the M.V. African American Film Festival.
By Abby Remer - August 14, 2024
Christine Swanson’s luxuriously paced new film, “Albany Road,” which screened at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, hits all the right notes. It is immensely funny, touching, and consummately performed.
Although there are many delightful moments of deep laughter, the underlying themes of love — of family, friends, lovers, partners, and God — underscore one of the movie’s primary messages: not allowing fear to dictate our lives.
The ensemble cast is led by two superb actresses — Reneé Elise Goldsberry as Celeste, a New York advertising executive, and Lynn Whitfield as Paula, the feisty, often sassy, mother of her ex-fiancée.
“Albany Road” opens with Celeste reassuring her boss that she can land a big account. The stakes are high. If she does, she becomes a partner; if not, the company goes under.
The initial challenge is her ability to get from New York City to D.C. during what turns out to be a snowstorm that closes down the airport. Unfortunately, through a twist of fate, the only hope she has of making it is to share a ride with Paula, who turns up unexpectedly vying for the same last rental car.
With brilliant dialogue and acting, sparks fly between the two women on their time-sensitive road trip, and we soon learn why. About a year before, Paula deviously undermined Celeste’s engagement to her son Kyle (J. Alphonse Nicholson) for selfish, misguided reasons. We learn that this single act snowballed with rippling consequences for the couple, ultimately tearing them apart.
As the romp continues, the plot gets ever more amusing and tangled as secrets are revealed throughout the journey by all the characters, adding extra richness to the film. At the heart, though, is the growth and complexity of the relationship between Celeste and Paula, who both have a lot to lose and much to gain.
In the post-screening conversation, Whitfield explained why she took on the role, “When I read it, it was funny. It was sad. It was oh-so-human. It was a look at Black people that I thought was so full of so many interesting textures. I spoke to Christine, and I knew she had a real vision for the movie. She promised me it wouldn’t be corny and ‘wishy-wishy.’ It was so well written; it excited me. So I said, yes, let’s try it.”
Goldsberry shared, “What I loved most about it was that it is a ‘romantic-dramedy,’ but I believe in my heart it’s a love story between two women. We have this wonderful leading male actor to die for, but the time Christine took and the investment she made was to develop the relationship between two women who have too much in common and too great a need for each other to let life pass without them figuring out how to see themselves in each other.”
Swanson, who self-financed the film with her husband and producer Michael Swanson, spoke about the “road” to bringing it to fruition.
“We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had enough. We didn’t have a lot of snow, but we had enough. We had enough of whatever we needed. And I felt like [the actors’] hearts filled in the blanks. We had so much fun.”
She emphasizes, “This was an opportunity to express Black joy with dimension, with humanity, with sorrows and happiness. This is the complexity we live and breathe as human beings and as Black people.”
