A Journal for Jordan

A Journal for Jordan (2021) is a movie my wife and family saw in theatres on Christmas Day. The storyline follows a single mother raising a young man and trying to explain his past, her relationship with his father and why circumstances are the way they are. As the young man faces various struggles in life, she reads him segments of a journal his father left him before passing away on how and why he has to handle various circumstances in life.

This movie is directed by Denzel Washington (Antwone Fisher) and stars Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Chanté Adams (Bad Hair), Robert Wisdom (Face/Off), Tamara Tunie (Flight) and David Wilson Barnes (Capote).

The storyline for this is very well written and executed. The elements of the storyline and how they are presented while jumping around "present day" events are well done. The lessons learned by the characters and how that plays into the final conclusion is excellent. The cast delivers remarkable performances and the movie has many tear jerking moments and elements.

Overall this is a very well done picture with numerous important life lessons and elements. I would score this a strong 8/10 and strongly recommend it.

Touching true story, but this probably made for a better book than this movie gave it justice. The first half is sooo slow. The pacing is just off, and the movie is way longer than it needs to be at 2:11. The acting, dialogue, and the leads' chemistry were flat. These are typically good actors, so a lot of the fault weighs on the script and direction (sorry Denzel). It's almost a little painful to watch in the beginning, when they are telling the love story, and all the flashbacks/flashforwards didn't help. The film finally picked up in the last third of the movie, when they focused on the mom and now pre-teen son (cutie Jalon Christian), as she started sharing with Jordan, the story of how he was born and his father's time in the army. I had really looked forward to seeing this, but the quality and story being more like a TV/Lifetime movie were disappointing, IMHO! March2022 (*true story*sappy*too long*poorly executed*)

7/10 - all the time jumps did not benefit the film and some sharper editing of the scenes would have elevated the film, but I did cry three separate times during it so it definitely will get you in your feels.

This was a bit too melodramatic for my taste. Denzel's previous directorial productions were better. No doubt, Michael B. And Chante Adams delivered, but the flashback sequences were overdone and confusing at times. From the black perspective, the casting was odd. The lead character didn't have one real black friend? Just co-workers/friends? Also, wondered why the child/Jordan looked mixed when clearly, it's hard to imagine Michael B. And Chante producing a kid to look like he did. I noticed that the real life kid has a lighter complexion, but so did the real dad and mom. Guess they had to attach a big name to get it green lit.

Ahhhh, those diaries that move us... They could mention the first daughter more, I would feel excluded if I were her... :( The movie is cute, but the development is a little slow... War movies are always painful and beautiful , poetic... The ending, very moving, beautiful, beautiful, I cried...