A Valentine's Day opening would have freed this from awards season expectations and multiplex competition this is in no shape to stand up to. Washington's only direction to Jordan appears to have been "Play this like a younger me would have" and the actor does succeed at providing a young Denzel impression that is perfectly on point when you close your eyes.īut the journalist and drill sergeant are paper-thin characters and thus it is incredibly difficult to be moved by their playful phone calls, romantic gestures, and relationship setbacks here. Gives us a flat leading man, doing nothing to inject the standard issue relationship squabbles with something distinct or substantial. And Jordan, the person in front of the camera you've come to trust over the past decade for knockout performances in films like Fruitvale Station and Creed, What value laid in Canedy's memoir is obscure in the screenplay by Virgil Williams, whose previous adaptation Mudbound earned him an Academy Award nomination. How Washington, one of the most commanding actors of our time and a director of increasing renown, could make something you mistake for a Hallmark movie is a puzzle. It plays out largely like a Hallmark romance but with less of the seasonal fun you might expect given the timing. The movie is meant to be a tearjerker, but it never earns those tears, instead simply boring you numb with its inexplicably methodical and unremarkable love story. It runs well over two hours with almost nothing to justify that length. The titular journal barely features in the film and it's not clear why. Jordan) and embarks upon a primarily long-distance relationship with him. It tells the story of how Canedy (played here by Chanté Adams), a reporter for the New York Times, falls for divorced Army sergeant Charles Monroe King (Michael B. Washington again has a Pulitzer Prize winner on his side, but in this case, author Dana Canedy won for the series "How Raced Is Lived in America" and not the 2008 memoir that forms the basis for this slow, corny, hollow film. Washington returns to directing on A Journal for Jordan, an oddly inert romantic drama you'd never guess was from someone who last gave us Fences. In addition to starring in Joel Coen's striking but dull monochromatic The Tragedy of Macbeth, Adams is a vivacious screen presence with a twinkle in her eye, and Jordan can’t quite match her, unable to draw out any real inner turmoil in a character who is respectable to a fault.Denzel Washington manages to disappoint on both sides of the camera this holiday season. Washington appears to be drawn to the old-school ideal of masculinity embodied by King. There’s even a gratuitous shot of Jordan’s bare bum. The film seems aimed at female audiences, emphasising Canedy’s struggles to balance being a single mother with her job at the New York Times, and luxuriating in their date nights across New York City. Portrayed here by Chanté Adams and Michael B Jordan, the couple’s fairytale courtship is detailed in extended flashback scenes, though the journal is a reminder that their happy ending is ultimately doomed. Its title refers to the notebook of advice that her partner, Charles Monroe King, a soldier who died during the Iraq war, left for their young son. Directed by Denzel Washington, this solemn romantic drama is based on Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Dana Canedy’s 2008 memoir.
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