If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) * *

Directed by:  Barry Jenkins

Starring:  KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Michael Beach, Anjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, Ed Skrein, Brian Tyree Henry

There is a powerful story lurking at the edges of If Beale Street Could Talk, one which would promote outrage and maintain a relevant contemporary perspective, but director Jenkins prefers to show us close-up after close-up of its protagonists making lovey-dovey eyes at each other.    They are in love.   We get it.   I'm happy for them even though I'm not particularly moved.    The injustice which keeps them apart is the real story here.

We meet Tish (Layne) and Fonnie (James) in the opening shot walking hand-in-hand down some steps and Tish asks, "Are you ready to do this?"   It is early 1970s Harlem, and Tish and Fonnie are ready to build a life together, but this dream is quickly dashed when a woman accuses Fonnie of raping her in a darkened apartment hallway one night.    Fonnie was nowhere near the scene on the night of the rape, and we learn he is the victim of a racist cop with an ax to grind.    Fonnie was hanging in his apartment with Tish and his childhood friend Daniel (Henry), who was just paroled.   When Daniel is picked up again for a parole violation, Fonnie's lawyer grimly explains how Tish's testimony is judicially worthless and Daniel's shady past could promote doubt about the alibi, even though it is the truth. 

Tish soon reveals to her family, and to Fonnie, that she is pregnant, which is met with universal support from her family, but with disdain and scorn from his.    Fonnie's mother is a sermonizing holy roller who accuses Tish of sin, while Tish's mother Sharon (King) tries in vain to convince Fonnie's mom of what a miracle this all is.    Sharon isn't successful, and Tish now has to face the prospect that she will have to raise the baby while Fonnie languishes in prison for a crime he didn't commit.   Whatever idealist, romantic views of the world Tish and Fonnie had are now crushed.    The light has disappeared from their eyes and replaced with sadness.  

Based on James Baldwin's 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk captures its era and racial attitudes precisely, but yet I was left indifferent.    The film is overly stylized, including way too many long close-ups of its characters staring into the camera.    The movie could've benefited from fewer expository scenes of Tish and Fonnie's blossoming romance, because frankly they're boring.   These are nice people, and the performances feel natural, but yet I was apathetic when I should've been riveted.  

The dubious circumstances which keep Tish and Fonnie apart are treated as a subplot, when in actuality it is the plot.    Blacks are still treated to disproportionate justice even today, and in 1970s America, such stories as Tish's and Fonnie's were sadly common.    Is Jenkins suggesting their love overcame their outrage?    Perhaps so, but this is a duller take on a story just waiting to take a hold of you and stir you, but it never does.   Jenkins told a much more powerful tale in Moonlight, in which a young gay black man is unable to express himself on the mean streets of Miami.    We understand why Shiron (the subject of Moonlight) is afraid to be himself in the drug world he grows up in, and it creates the dramatic power lacking here.