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.
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