Denzel Washington is brilliant as the director of A Journal for Jordan. It will make all single viewers green with envy with the relationship between Charles (Michael B. Jordan) and Dana (Chante Adams). It’s a romantic love story, but it also concentrates heavily on the sacrifices our military has to make when deployed overseas and the sacrifices of loved ones left back home as well. For example, when Dana gives birth to the couple’s son, Jordan, Charles is in the Middle East with no idea he will be allowed to come home.
The relationship between the two is also realistic, showing the trials and tribulations of a new couple. Dana and Charles also have some funny moments, like the way she is always teasing him about his raggedy sneakers and the casual way he dresses (she eventually buys him a suit). Dana also has issues dating a military man because her father is a retired military officer who was unfaithful to her mother. The movie has substance. It’s not just two good looking people falling in bed with each other.
The movie is based on a real army vet, First Sergeant Charles Monroe, who was killed in the Gulf War. While in battle, Charles keeps a journal for the unborn son teaching him life lessons like how to be a decent man and all of the philosophies of life that he believes in. His mother gives him the journal when he’s 16 and he stays engrossed in the journal learning about a father he never knew.
Washington puts some really likable characters up on the screen. You root for Dana and Charles on their relationship and later in the film you root for young Jordan to learn all that he can about his deceased father. Denzel deserves an Oscar nomination for this film.
There’s a lot of depth to this movie and it’s also filled with simple lessons of life, like the importance of having your affairs in order and keeping a will.
The movie is a tearjerker and a very heartfelt look at military life. I’m going back to watch it again. The movie is rated PG-13 and runs a little bit over 2 hours. On my “Hollywood Popcorn Scale” I rate A Journal for Jordan a JUMBO.
