‘A Journal for Jordan’
By all accounts, 1st Sgt. Charles Monroe King was a great guy, and the world is sadder place without him. We’re lucky an actor as gifted as Michael B. Jordan is playing him, but it’s a shame the filmmakers can’t seem to leave the same vivid impression he made in his short life.
That may be a tall order because as “A Journal for Jordan” depicts him, he was a capable and considerate leader of his own troops and the sort of boyfriend any woman might have wanted. He was also a talented artist who knew his way around Claude Monet and George Seurat.
While his paramour Dana Canedy (Chante Adams) just happened to be a reporter for The New York Times, so she could write about him eloquently, he wasn’t even a memory to their son Jordan (Jalon Christian).
Because “A Journal for Jordan” is told mostly through flashbacks, it occasionally loses what could be the most powerful component of the story, Jordan’s attempt to learn about a father who died before the two men could get acquainted.
Director Denzel Washington and screenwriter Virgil Williams (“Mudbound”), working from Canedy’s article for the newspaper and her book, focus primarily on the reporter’s relationship with King. Because he was a likable fellow, that’s not a bad thing, but it might not be the most dramatic thread to follow.
King was in the process of going through a divorce when he met Canedy, but we never learn why that relationship fizzled and the later one sizzled. The one hint of tension comes from the fact that both lovers are in careers that can tax relationships. Looking after his troops can crush date night, and her assignments can keep her miles away from him.
Williams is on more secure footing when he depicts how non-commissioned officers like King behave. As a former contractor for the Marine Corps, I was often struck by how sergeants tended to look at their subordinates and their peers as part of a team.
One looked at his civilian co-worker with contempt because unlike him she couldn’t do everything she asked an underling to do. In his view, no superior makes a such a request. Another seemed preoccupied with making sure that the privates and the corporals kept up with the others in the group.
Jordan effortlessly conveys this aspect of military demeanor but seems just smitten enough with Adams to make viewers wish that King wasn’t on his way to becoming cannon fodder.
Adams’ struggles to juggle motherhood, unintentional slights from her white co-workers and grief are also involving, but she maintains the balancing act a little better than the filmmakers do.
Washington isn’t on camera in “A Journal for Jordan,” and there probably isn’t a good role for him considering that the lead characters are consistently younger than his own offspring.
Nonetheless, there was an energy in “Fences,” “Antwone Fisher” and “The Great Debaters” that’s missing here. The time shifts deny the story some momentum, so the slow pace and longish running time keep a worthy film from reaching its potential.
I still give “A Journal for Jordan” an honorable discharge, but I wish a drill instructor like 1st Sgt. King were pushing the movie to its formidable promise.