“If Beale Street Could Talk”– Movie Review

This week, I attended a New York Times ScreenTimes screening of the new drama, “If Beale Street Could Talk”, written and directed by Barry Jenkins.

Synopsis

When a young man is falsely accused of rape, can his fiancée get him freed from jail?


Story

A young couple in love is always a beautiful thing to behold – even if it does occur in the New York City of the early 1970’s.  In this case, it’s 19 year old Harlem resident Tish (KiKi Layne) and her 23 year old fiancé Alonzo (Stephan James).  Aspiring to a career as a wood carver, Alonzo has been working subsistence jobs so he and Tish can someday marry. As usual, life intrudes upon the simplest of plans – Alonzo is wrongly charged with (and arrested for) the rape of Victoria (Emily Rios), a Puerto Rican woman who lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  Their wedding plans are put on hold.

Dutifully visiting Alonzo in jail, Tish must break some news:  she’s pregnant with their child. While Alonzo is certainly delighted, he becomes even more determined to get out before their baby is born.  That’s easier said – in addition to Victoria positively identifying him in a lineup, the racist cop who arrested him claims he saw Alonzo running from the scene of the crime.  Tish and her family work together with Alonzo’s father to earn money to pay for Alonzo’s lawyer, but they suffer a setback once Victoria leaves New York City to live with her family in Puerto Rico. 

Since their only hope is for Victoria to attend the trial and testify the police coerced her into identifying Alonzo, Tish’s mother Sharon (Regina King) flies to Puerto Rico to try to find her.  Upon locating Victoria through an intermediary, a meeting is arranged. Sharon goes to Victoria’s neighborhood and discusses the situation with her, explaining that she has known Alonzo since he was a child and is extremely doubtful about the rape allegation.  Victoria, however, remains traumatized since her attack; while she may concede the possibility Alonzo is innocent, she might not withstand cross-examination during a trial. Will Sharon be able to convince Victoria into giving her testimony or is Alonzo doomed to a long prison sentence? 

 

Review

There is no doubt director Barry Jenkins possesses an arresting and unique style when it comes to visual storytelling, but his screenplay adaptation of the 1974 James Baldwin novel does not well serve its source material.  The forward momentum of the story is frequently halted due to the use of flashbacks, which temporarily take the viewer out of the present day before returning to the story. Apparently, the reason is to provide context for subsequent story beats.  While this may be justifiable in a fictional book, such a structure in a feature film causes the story to suffer from a dramatic standpoint.

“Beale Street” is a worthy follow-up to Jenkins’ award winning “Moonlight” because it is a serious work based on a novel by a noted African-American author.  Its tale, while compelling and still timely 45 years later, is in a somewhat flawed movie – the resolution of which occurs largely off-screen. The audience only learns of it by voiceover narration from Tish.  Why Jenkins chose not to portray this on camera is baffling, almost to the point of being infuriating. This choice results in lower dramatic outcome, substantially detracting from the emotional impact on the viewer.  Since this should have been the main thrust of the film, it is indeed something of a curiosity.

Following the interview was an interview with screenwriter and director Barry Jenkins.  Jenkins said he travelled to Brussels, Belgium where he wrote his first draft of the screenplay adaptation of Baldwin’s novel in about a month.  He did this at great risk since he hadn’t officially purchased the rights to the book. After submitting his script to The Baldwin Estate, which is very protective of the writer’s legacy, Jenkins went on to make “Moonlight” while awaiting their response.  Subsequently, Jenkins received a package from The Estate containing a 1978 notebook in which Baldwin had written his own incomplete version of the adaptation, which was quite similar to Jenkins’ own work.