Terry McMillan Presents: Tempted by Love (2024)

If you are a fan of Terry McMillan’s popular literary gems-turned-movies like Disappearing Acts (1989/2000), Waiting to Exhale (1992/1995), and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1996/1998), the wait is over because the queen of romantic popular fiction has teamed up with the Lifetime network to bring us a pair of new romantic movies featuring black leads – yes, black people in love! Can we get an Amen?

If you are adult, black, and breathing in places like Canada, the USA, and UK, you have surely observed the shortage of media (of any kind) that represents black people in loving, romantic relationships. (This is perhaps why the Instagram handle blacklovefeed has attracted almost half a million followers!) It is far easier to pick up your smart phone, turn on your TV, or head to your local cinema to see images of black people harming each other or engaging in reckless, emotionless sex acts devoid of intimacy, passion, sensuality, and love, than it is to see images of profound tenderness and connection. This of course is a problem born of the strategic exclusion of black people from leadership roles in the arts, fines art, and media which has led not to a dearth in representations of our beautiful black selves, but a plethora of stereotypical images which offer up black characters as objects to be used and discarded, side-kicks to be killed and disposed of, or hyper-sexual beings for pornographic white viewing pleasure. Rarely have we seen the opposite, that is images of black people engaging each other with care, sensitivity, sensuality, compassion, and yes, love. Well, Ms. McMillian – in collaboration with writer Tamara Gregory and director Tailiah Breon – has allowed us to exhale once again with the first film of this duo, Tempted by Love (2024).

For heterosexual black women of a certain age, she’s also provided a “hallelujah” moment by giving us a love story about a gorgeous, practical, and accomplished black woman and an intelligent, ambitious, and fine-as-hell black man, the former who just happens to be twenty years older than the latter. When Ava (played by the talented and beautiful Garcelle Beauvais) rushes back to South Carolina to care for her ailing aunt (played by Donna Biscoe), it is the handsome, former athlete Luke (played by Vaughn W. Hebron also of season 2 of Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt) who drives her to the hospital from the airport. While the chemistry is immediate for him, Ava is all about family and business and determined to spend only a few days in town before returning to her high-powered career as a chef at a glamourous restaurant in Brussels. But when her aunt demands a dish of black peas from her hospital bed, it is Luke who returns, not with a dish prepared by his mother, but with one he prepared himself. As Ava tastes Luke’s dish her interest is piqued and her previously aloof manner begins to vanish.

But as the devoted Ava cares for her aunt, she is blind-sided by bad news when she gets word that she’s been fired. She suspects the unexpected turn of events is linked to staff members disclosing her recent struggles with arthritis, but regardless, the news sends her down an unexpected path of soul searching. With no job to rush back to, she decides to stay in town for a few more weeks, a development which Luke capitalizes upon by slowly breaking down Ava’s walls and getting her to agree to a real date. You see, at first their interactions are casual “food and friendly conversation” and when Luke makes it clear that his interest is romantic, Ava balks at the suggestion that anything real could ever develop between them. To Ava, Luke’s questioning of her reluctance is a sign of his naivete. To Luke, her questioning of his intentions is a sign of her social hang-ups and refusal to take him seriously because of his age. When he asks her why she declined his request for a date she reminds him that older women who date younger men are called cougars and that older men who date younger women are called lucky!

But Luke, focused and mature, is unphased and determined to get to know Ava better. When Ava finally agrees to their first real date, Luke cooks for her, boldly preparing a dish which had earned her a Michelin star. When she tastes it, her reaction is one of astonishment and her appreciation for Luke grows alongside the attraction that was already there. When they finally make love, it is intimate, passionate, sensual, and at Ava’s request, slow.

Their shared passion for cooking deepens their bond as they prepare meals together with Ava patiently teaching Luke and observing his obvious skill and passion. Poignantly, there is a moment when Luke observes that he likes the way she teaches him without making him feel inferior.

At a Gullah festival, both dressed in white, the two enjoy the music, food, and each other, and Ava finally surrenders touching, kissing, and caressing Luke publicly as her man (yes, lots of PDA)! Her inhibitions are finally gone. So, when they prepare and host a spectacular meal for her aunt’s birthday, it is as a couple who welcome Ava’s aunt and their close friends played by Lela Rochon and Loretta Devine.

Like all good romance movies, there is a dilemma to be resolved. Thinking that Ava was heading back to Europe for a new job, Luke proudly reveals that he has applied to and received a letter of acceptance from a famed Parisian cooking school. But his hopes of continuing their relationship get dashed as she reveals that she has taken his suggestion and applied for a job as a chef at a new local hotel. Instead, she received a better offer and accepted an appointment as the chef in charge of the hotel chain’s multiple restaurants. Gut punch anyone? So we are left in a place with each of the lovers finding out that the thing they have encouraged their beloved to do for themselves has led to a genuinely wonderful opportunity, that will however, keep them on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

So, as Ava and her bestie accompany Luke to the airport to catch his flight to Paris, we are left to wonder if she’ll pull a Stella Payne (aka Angel Bassett) and do a last-minute dash into the airport to stop her very own Winston Shakespeare (aka Taye Diggs) from leaving. We suggest that you tune in with your girlfriends and a bottle of wine and find out!