if beale street could talk…

I went to the Watershed this afternoon to see Barry Jenkins’ film “If Beale Street Could Talk”, based on the James Baldwin novel of the same name. It’s set in Harlem in the 1970s and tells the story of a young black couple (newly pregnant Tish, played by KiKi Layne, and her lover Fonny, played by Stephan James). Fonny is falsely accused of rape. Like so many young African American men, he has been arrested and jailed on the trumped-up charge, following a run-in with a grudge-bearing, young white policeman.
The film opens with a bold quotation from Baldwin’s book: “Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street” and goes on to cite “the impossibility and the possibility, the absolute necessity, to give expression to this legacy”.

The last two films I’ve seen (‘Vice’ and ‘The Green Book’) both featured the scary, prejudiced, racist world of 1970s America and this one merely underlined this. It’s all very shameful and depressing (I just hope American audiences are equally sickened by what’s happened in the not-so-distant past).

It’s a beautifully produced film (graceful cinematography, evocative score) and Layne and James are both excellent in their respective roles (KiKi’s mother, played by Regina King, was also very impressive). It’s a hugely powerful and important tale… but my one slight reservation was that it was just that – a story. To my mind, any invented story can’t be as powerful as the real thing. No doubt, such events DID actually happen in New York City at that time, but I frequently found myself thinking: “this has been made for the entertainment of cinema-goers”.

After writing the above, I’ve read a gushing, 5-star review of the film by Mark Kermode (“heart-stopping cinematic love story, told with a tough but tender truthfulness that left me weeping and swooning”)… so maybe I’ve been a little harsh?

Well, I thought it was a really good film, but I certainly wouldn’t have given it 5 stars.