Beale Street talks and sends a powerful message

It was Rihanna who found love in a hopeless place and that may well be an accurate summary of where the two protagonists of If Beale Street Could Talk find themselves. Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to the Oscar-winning Moonlight (2016) is stunning; if I see a better film this year I will count myself fortunate. The fact that this film has nowhere near the same amount of Oscar love is one of those baffling cases which can only be explained by the fact that people do stupid things sometimes.

The film is based on James Baldwin’s book of the same name and Jenkins, who wrote the script, is bold enough to incorporate large chunks of Baldwin’s original in the narration and even the dialogue of some of the characters. This elevates the screenplay with a fierce intelligence which, coupled with the use of documentary footage and images, ground the film in reality. This is a story which is hard to dismiss, even if you wanted to.

Set in New York in the 1970s it is a love story between two young black people; Tish (Kiki Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James). It is a picture book romance undone by the vicious bigotry of one New York policeman who falsifies evidence against Fonny on a rape charge. The allegations are false but Fonny is mostly guilty of being a young black man. Tish however, with the support of her formidable family, is determined to prove his innocence and get him out.

The flashback/flash forward style of storytelling gives the film an almost fairy-tale quality.

Tish’s inherent goodness and determination can be felt in almost every frame, Jenkins also focuses on Fonny as an artist. He creates beautiful pieces out of wood and James Laxton’s camera lingers on his craft. In any other film Tish and Fonny would rise above but not here, bad things do happen to good people and it becomes a question of how they deal with it

There is a lovely scene in which Fonny encourages a sceptical Tish to indulge in the fantasy of renting a loft in the Village. It’s a touching moment in which we, and they, are invited to consider the possibilities of other circumstances. Instead the film acknowledges the difficulties of their lives; Brian Tyree Henry has a chilling speech about what can be done to a young black man in one of the film’s most powerful sequences. But acknowledgement does not mean acceptance. The families rally round, they will live within the system and try to use it to fund the case.

The performances are universally marvellous, especially from Layne and James, but the stand out is Regina King who is simply magnificent as Tish’s mother. Her confrontation with Fonny’s accuser is chilling and intensely moving.

If Beale Street Could Talk is visually stunning. Although set in the 1970s we do not have the usual grimy washed out palette. Instead Jenkins and his Moonlight cinematographer James Laxton paint pictures in romantic reds, deep greens, and other lush, saturated tones. This is like an urban version of a Douglas Sirk film and the richness of the colour scheme evokes the fundamental richness of this relationship.

By the time we reach the end of Tish and Fonny’s journey we have been through an emotional wringer. The ending should be tragic, and to a certain extent it is, but there is always love and perhaps the place isn’t so hopeless after all.