Solely relying on Dana’s subjective and romanticised memories, it makes sense that the narrative would paint Charles with such idealistic brushstrokes, but by denying him complexity, his portrayal becomes otiose, shallow and unrealistic.

We find out that he has an ex-wife and daughter, but the film never acknowledges his relationship with them. Anything that might complicate this saintly portrait is conveniently omitted. We then see the couple fall in love, cope with the strain of distance, along with how Dana learns to cope with the emptiness caused by her beloved’s untimely death.Ĭharles is posthumously depicted as a saint: an earnest military man with working class sensibilities and a love for pointillist art, whose only flaw is wearing the same pair of worn-out trainers everywhere he goes. Dana first meets Charles in her parents’ living room, visiting home for a holiday. In a constant cycle of flashbacks and timejumps – oddly signposted by captions in Times New Roman – Denzel renders Canedy’s memoir into a corny and soapy melodrama that looks as if it were plucked from the early 2000s. When Charles meets a tragic death in Iraq, Jordan has to piece together his father’s identity through the titular journal. The story centres Dana’s (Chanté Adams) struggle with grief, as well as a collection of journal entries written by United States Army First Sergeant Charles Monroe King (Michael B Jordan) for his infant son Jordan. Denzel Washington’s fourth directorial effort is a story of love, loss and sacrifice told through the journal of Charles Monroe King.ĭonning the director’s cap for the fourth time, it seemed that Denzel Washington was setting himself up for success by enlisting Michael B Jordan for his adaptation of New York Times journalist Dana Canedy’s memoir.

A journal for jordan