Making a film based off an established novel can be both a challenging and daunting task on its own. The film not only has to bring the source material to life in a form that makes it affecting for audiences, but also manage to stand on its own feet as a standalone motion picture. With
If Beale Street Could Talk, director Barry Jenkins manages to bring a romantic drama to the big screen that's powerful, heartbreaking, and reflective on many of the themes it covers that mirror today's society. It helps that the film is brilliantly acted with fantastic performances from KiKi Layne and Regina King, the latter who went onto receiving a well-deserved Academy Award for her performance. Whereas many films fail to do their books justice,
If Beale Street Could Talk proves to be one of the rare exceptions as it not only honors it's source material but stands on its own as being a beautifully filmed story, that ultimately serves as being a true testament to enduring love.
Based on James Baldwins classic book, the story takes place in 1970's Harlem where a young woman (Played by KiKi Layne) finds herself trying to negotiate with the legal system when her fiance (Played by Stephen James) is arrested for a crime he didn't commit. To further add more complications to the situation, she is also expecting their child. The love story that
If Beale Street Could Talk carries is an unusual yet striking one due to it not only being effective in regards to being a romantic drama, but also carries with it a reflection of some of the key societal issues such as the systemic racism that African-Americans faced during the 1970's (As well as today) in regards to being harassed by police, wrongfully jailed, and struggling to find affordable housing. The film is both sincere and powerful with its message due to the intimacy of the story largely thanks to Barry Jenkins noteworthy directing, along with the stellar performances from its main cast. It becomes clear upon watching the film that both the cast and crew have something they want to say with the material, and successfully deliver their message without it feeling thrown at audiences. Although the film is essentially designed to be a romantic drama, the message the story delivers drives home the harsh reality that the American justice system is not equal towards everybody and can wrongfully convict and place people behind bars, African-Americans in particular.
If Beale Street Could Talk is a film that works largely due to the sheer power of its story largely thanks to the noteworthy craftsmanship of its director, as well as the strength of its talented ensemble cast who clearly poured their hearts into their roles. The film is as much of a visual piece with its breathtaking cinematography as it is one of emotional storytelling, that rightfully placed it as being one of the finest films of 2018 with both its heartbreaking and eye-opening love story.
As striking as the films cinematography comes across as being along with the firm directing Barry Jenkins delivers, it's the strong performances from the cast that make the story as powerful and moving as it ultimately comes across. The performances presented here are raw and emotionally-charged with everyone bringing a genuine sincerity to their characters. In the main roles, the two actors that deliver the best performances are Kiki Layne and Regina King with Layne's character providing the film with both its heart and soul. She manages to deliver both a likable and touching performance as Tish Rivers with her character serving as being the audiences guide through the story with her revealing the thoughts of other characters, while commenting on the political landscape of the neighborhood surrounding her family. The film works as well as it does because Kiki brings her character to life and makes the audience connect with her on an emotional level. They not only understand the love that Tish has for her husband but also the helplessness, frustration, and anger she feels as her family is literally being ripped from her by a biased and corrupt judicial system. As good as Layne is in her role, Regina King steals the show with her performance as Tish's strong-willed mother, whose determined to do her absolute best to try and help her daughters situation along with helping to get her husband Alonzo out of jail. King brings both strength and class to her performance with her character having some particularly strong emotional scenes (The stunning sequence involving her confronting Alonzo's mother for disrespecting Tish along with her confrontation with the woman who falsely accused Alonzo of raping her for example). King's performance puts her on top form here with her Best Supporting Actress Oscar win ultimately being justified. Stephan James meets the standard set by the other two actresses head on with him delivering a heartbreaking performance as Alonzo Hunt with the audience completely buying his characters love for Tish, along with his vulnerability and slow-realization that he may never get a chance to see his family outside of jail. Both Layne and James work exceptionally well together and share great chemistry with the scenes showing their relationship prior to Alonzo being arrested as well as during. The audience gets a genuine sense that the two main characters are deeply in love and struggling to make the best life possible for them given the discrimination they face within society with the audience wanting them to succeed despite knowing the basis of the plot. The rest of the cast deliver notable supporting performances with Teyonah Parris as Tish's sister Ernestine Rivers, Colman Domingo as Tish's father, Brian Tyree Henry as Alonzo's recently paroled friend Daniel, Ed Skrein as the racist police officer who both harrasses and testifies against Alonzo, Emily Rios in a miminal though effective performance as Victoria Rogers, the rape victim who misidentifies Fonny, and Micha Beach as Alonzo's father Frank Hunt, and Aunjanur Ellis as Alonzo's mother Alice Hunt. The cast for
If Beale Street Can Talk plays a large part in regards to the film being as effective and powerful as it ends up being with everyone bringing something to the film through their performances. There is not one performance in the film that could be described as being lackluster or bad with every actor and actress bringing their A game to the project with the end result paying off majorly. The performances from the cast are brilliant and add a great deal of humanity to the story as well as believability.
Directed by Barry Jenkins, he does a fine job of giving the film both an intimate and personal feel to it that also feels inviting for the audience with Layne's characters narration. He does well with setting up the appropriate mood and tone for the story with the film being gorgeously shot with impressive cinematography. With both the camera work and Jenkins style for setting up the films period setting, the audience gets both the look and feel of 1970's Harlem with them essentially being transported back to that setting with these characters. Mood plays an essential part of telling the story here and Jenkins creates one that's beautiful, somber, heartbreaking, and inspiring in a sense that Tish tries to keep her immediate family together despite the circumstances splitting her and Alonzo apart. The score by Nicholas Britell is well-done and takes a life of itself in the film with the music feeling as if its excessively loud at times (Though that's intended specifically for dramatic effect rather than annoying the audience). The soundtrack utilizes music that's inspired by the 1970's Harlem setting with songs that fit that time period appropriately, while enhancing the mood of both the characters and story. The films editing is well-structured with the film moving at a slow yet steady pace, that allows the main characters to be established as well as the romance between Tish and Alonzo with Tish's mom attempting to locate the woman who claimed Alonzo raped her. The narrative remains straight-forward with Tish's narration intercutting with pictures of real-life Harlem in the 1970's to support many of the facts she delivers to the audience regarding mistreatment of blacks in Harlem. The set and costume designs are both spot-on and feel legitimate to the time period of the story with Jenkins nailing the visual look and style of the film. The films sound effects go hand-in-hand with enhancing the impact of the music within the story. As far as directing goes, Jenkins takes the novel the film is based on and brings it to life in a fashion that's absorbing and visually appealing to watch with audiences having little to no trouble with being drawn into the film.
The films screenplay also by Jenkins based off of Baldwin's novel, proves to be a strong effort in taking the source material and translating it onto the big screen in a way that audiences in today's generation can connect with along with older audiences. The script covers themes pertaining to the criminal justice system, false accusations and wrongful convictions, racism, love, family, faith, important life choices, parenting, pregnancy out of wedlock, dreams, sexual assault, plea deals which many African-Americans were forced to take in hopes of reducing their sentencing, and hope. Jenkins takes all of these themes (Many of them which mirror problems that many African-Americans and people of color face today) and explores them throughout the script in a way that's both straight-forward, as well as eye-opening for the audience to think about, process, and ultimately realize. He does a fantastic job of building up the romance between Tish and Alonzo with showing their relationship beginning at a young age to it progressing into something that's real with their relationship shown to be that of true love. With the script, Jenkins makes it a point to show how their young love inspires other people to help them such as the young Jewish landlord (Played by Dave Franco) taking a chance on Tish and Alonzo by renting out a studio apartment to them based on how much they appear to love each other. The lawyer helping Tish free Alonzo is also shown to become more emotionally invested in the case as he fights harder for the release of his client while quietly showing disapproval at the judicial system, that's harshly keeping Alonzo and others like him unfairly locked up. Jenkins also shows how faith plays a key role in Tish's family maintaining both their strength and hope that Alonzo's accuser can be found, and admit that she made a mistake in wrongfully accusing him of rape. The most powerful moments of the film that drive the emotional core of the story are those in which the characters have quiet moments in which their thoughts are either explained to the audience through Tish's narrating or they deliver powerful monologues to the audience that sum up their fears and frustrations. One of the films key moments that shows how flawed and broken the justice system is during the visit Tish's mother pays to see Alonzo's accuser with the latter revealing her uncertainty of whether it was Alonzo that raped her, but essentially settles on him being the one out of frustration for what happened to her. Such a moment is a heartbreaking and pivotal one for the audience as the reality of the story weighs in on them. Overall, the script is a solid and well-written effort that conveys much about what the main characters are feeling within the story, while showing a sad and harsh reality that many people of color (African-Americans in particular) experienced then as well as continue to experience now.
In the end,
If Beale Street Could Talk delivers on it's promise to adapt its novel to the big screen in a way that remains faithful to its source material, while transforming it into a motion picture that's both affecting and moving with its ultimate message regarding love and showing a deeply flawed and biased judicial system. The film is wonderfully told with terrific performances from its main cast and directing by its filmmaker, who continues to demonstrate his craftsmanship as a filmmaker with both his work here and his previous directing job with the 2016 Oscar winning film
Moonlight. Beale Street is a film that's not devoid of a soul and aims for the audiences heart in making them care about the young lovers, while asking the hard-hitting questions about what the pursuit of justice actually means in America and whether the system is fair to everyone with Jenkins showing the sad reality that it isn't. The film is a shining example of how a well-framed narrative and strong cinematography can blend well together in telling a story that's not only engrossing, but an essential one that shows the power of enduring love. The end scene of the film involving Tish, Alonzo, and their young child is one that's powerful yet heartbreaking with it bound to hit the audience hard in the when the credits roll. The film is subtle in it's storytelling, gorgeous in its framing, and manages to humanize all of its main characters to the audience with their motives and feelings being made visible. Although it may be a bit too depressing of a watch for certain viewers, it will entertain, enlighten, and remind others that love is real and will endure broken systems regardless of how trapped people feel as shown by the main characters in the film. In an era where many of the films themes have been brought to the forefront regarding major societal issues that people face today, the film almost essentially demands required viewing with the outcome being a rewarding one nonetheless.
Final Verdict: For those looking for well-constructed historical set pieces as well as moving romantic drama with a predominantly black cast,
If Beale Street Could Talk is a film that certainly requires and demands your viewing.
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