Watch the trailer A Journal for Jordan I surmised that this factual story, inspired by award-winning author Dana Canedy’s book of the same name, would be centered on love. My assumption that the film would be two hours long would soon be discredited when I realized that the love story at its heart was not a familial one but something more romantic.
I love a good story about love because I love love. And I’m always game to watch the awkward beginnings of a romantic relationship as the connection between two humans grows roots and begins to flourish. The hard part is letting go of this whirlwind romance. A Journal for JordanKnowing that the film must come to an end before it ends is the most important thing. This is the true story behind First Sergeant. Charles Monroe King, who was killed during the Iraq War, was also killed. I was completely captivated by the joy of the love that was, even though I knew it would end.
The film, directed by Denzel Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan as Charles and Chanté Adams as Dana, is not the kind of movie that relies on good writing or award-worthy portrayals to entertain. Instead, this is a movie for the lovers—those who enjoy being captivated by the allure of a good romance and are intrigued by the touching moments that make each couple’s story unique.
Content
You can also view the content on the source site.
Dana met us in 2007 while she was working as an editor at The New York Times. She’s a bit wound up, clearly frustrated by the male patriarchal structure at her office, and struggling a bit to find a sense of normalcy after the life she envisioned is taken away. But after voicing her reality—she is now a single mom—the movie makes way for happier times, laying a foundation for the woman we see at the beginning of the film.
Charles and Dana have an opposites attract type of connection. While she is the New York City hyper-focused career woman with aspirations to climb her newspaper’s masthead, he is the small-town divorced dad of one who loves nothing more than to be of service to his country. On paper, these two don’t have the kind of compatibility you would expect to form a long-term love, but then you see in subsequent scenes the moments that change their trajectory.
It can be difficult to make movies based on true events. This story, in particular struggles to pay tribute to a man who gave his life to his country while simultaneously embracing the emotions of the woman who loved and cared for him. It does, however, show a beautiful depiction of the love bonds that can form in the physical and intangible.
Through Charles’s written 200-page diary, gifted to him by Dana, and then given to his son, Jordan, lessons of a father take shape. It is these lessons—embrace your skin, treat women with respect, be an upstanding man—that exemplify the full extent of Charles’s adoration for the woman he asked to marry him and the child they created together. A Journal for Jordan doesn’t have the happy ending one comes to expect from love stories. It reminds us that true love never ends.
Tanya Christian is an editor and writer based in New York City. Follow her on twitter @tanyaachristian.
Source: Glamour