He Wrote A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to Bluray and Digital from director Denzel Washington and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the true story about A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN.

Dana Canedy (Chante Adams) comes home to visit her dad Sgt. T.J. Canedy (Robert Wisdom), mom Penny Canedy (Tamara Tunie), sister Gwen (Jasmine Batchelor) and brother Mike (Marchant Davis). While there, she meets 1^st Sgt. Charles King (Michael B. Jordan), a man dedicated to his military service and friend of Sgt. Canedy.

Acting as if she is not interested, it becomes clear over a few days that King is someone that Dana wants to know more about. Going back to her job in New York at The New York Times, she and King continue their talks on the telephone until he is finally able to visit Dana. Taking King around the city to see all the sites, it is obvious that there is more to their feelings.

As their relationship deepens, King returns to Dana every chance he gets and the two see that their lives are meant to be together. When 9/11 happens, Dana knows that there is a real chance that King will be deployed. King wants to marry right away but Dana wants to hold off and have a real wedding knowing that’s what she really wants.

But those plans are put a bit on hold when Dana tells King that she is pregnant with their son Jordan. King is beside himself with happiness and takes every moment on his leave home to spend time with the family he loves. Returning to the war and only weeks away from coming home for good, things take a turn.

As Jordan grows, it becomes for Dana to share a journal with her son and in return, Jordan (Jalon Christian) helps his mother find peace in her own life.

Adams as Dana is a feisty character of a woman who knows what she wants, or at least she thinks she does when it comes to love. She makes her needs clear from the beginning with King and has no problem voicing her displeasure when things are not as she wishes them to be. The worse thing in anyone’s life is death of a loved one and as Dana tells her story, it is clear she has not dealt with it until her son brings her to that point.

Jordan as King is the yin to Dana’s yang in that she expresses everything outwardly and King is a calmer person because he trusts in himself. He also makes it clear what he is looking for in their relationship and where he has come from in other relationships. I liked that about his character and Jordan gave King grace and dedication to Dana and to military service.

Christian as Jordan is so lovely, understanding, gentle and comes to know his father in a way that many never have a chance to. It is also easy to see that Jordan is so much like his father in the calm way he talks and reasons. Such a lovely young actor to give so much to a very sensitive role.

Other cast include Susan Pourfar as Miriam, David Wilson Barnes as Schaefer, Melanie Nicholls-King as Kaleshia, Vanessa Aspillga as Robin, Grey Henson as Ciro, Johnny M. Wu as Manny.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment encompasses motion picture production for television, digital content, and theater releases. The studios include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 6 Films and Sony Picture Classics. To see what is coming to theaters and to home entertainment please visit www.sonypictures.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

Special Features include Deleted Scenes, Family Portrait: Making the Film, Heart and Soul: Charles and Dana, Words of Wisdom: The Journal and Gag Reel.

A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN is based on the book A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor by Dana Canedy. Virgil Williams wrote the screenplay from the book as Denzel Washington also co-produced the film along with Michael B. Jordan.

This film is deeply moving, powerful and a lesson in love and the written word. Just knowing that King took the time to write things to his son is in itself amazing, but it is what he writes to his son that is stunning. Words to help a young man live by and find in himself as he grows, A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN lets us in to experience it all.

It is a love story between Dana and King that is sweet but also a learning curve as she never wanted to be with someone in the military because of her own father. What a shock it must have come to Dana to find herself falling in love with such an honorable young man who was definetly meant for her.

I enjoyed both Adams and Jordan’s performance on so many levels and found myself laughing, smiling and crying as they share the story of the King family.   

In the end – it is a love beyond words!

THE PHOTOGRAPH Takes a Snapshot of Life on Bluray

Jeri Jacquin

This week on Bluray, DVD and Digital from writer/director Stella Meghie and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is a story of love, life and the decisions we make in between THE PHOTOGRAPH.

Michael Block (Lakeith Stanfield) is a young writer from New Orleans who meets the elder Isaac (Rob Morgan) to talk to him about life after Hurricane Katrina. Telling Michael about his life, Isaac has a picture of a woman named Christina (Chante Adams) and it piques his interest and he feels as if he must know more about her.

Working with Michael is Andy (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) who manages learn that Christina has passed but leaves behind daughter Mae (Issa Rae). What they discover is that Christina and Isaac were once very much in love much to the dismay of her mother. As their relationship became more complicated, Christina chose to go to New York in order to follow a career as a photographer and Isaac is distraught.

After several months, Christina calls her mother to share the good news about a job and learns the sad truth. Returning home, she meets Isaac at the funeral learning even more devastating news. Not staying any longer, Christina goes home and does not return to New Orleans until many years later.

Seeing Isaac only brings up memories of the heart and Christina wants to be well-away from it. In the present, Michael and Mae are working on their relationship, but she is having a difficult time trying to understand why everything must be so complicated.

The answers may be in understanding her mother and the ability to forgive and let go so that love wins out.

Rae as Mae is the young woman struggling with her own history with Christina. As it becomes clearer through the story that Mom has issues that go back to her own mother, it is when we learn that history can emotionally repeat itself. Rae gives a strong performance filled with longing and insecurity yet a strength in understanding that love is worth every step she takes with Michael.

Stanfield as Michael is caught up in the past, the present and the strong feelings he starts to have for Mae. All while trying to capture the story that Isaac is sharing with him. When things become complicated with Mae, Michael must make the decision whether to stay or go far away and forget.

Adams as Christina was a woman ahead of her time. She wanted love to be sure, but she also wanted to be her own woman but having something all her own. Going away to find it, she believed in love but clearly forgot to let Isaac in on her beliefs. Morgan as Isaac wanted everything for Christina but had to deal with is own securities about providing a life for her. That is where life clashed between the two of them – both knowing what they wanted and neither of them giving an inch to the other to have it.

Other cast include: Dakota Paradise as young Mae, Rylee King as Sandrina, Y’lan Noel as young Issac, Lil Rey Howery as Kyle, Phoenix Noelle as Sophia, Teyonah Parris as Asia, Marsha Blake as Violet, Maxwell Cooper as Peter and Courtney B. Vance as Louis Morton.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

Bonus Features of the Bluray and DVD include Shooting THE PHOTOGRAPH: An inside look at the making of THE PHOTOGRAPH featuring interviews with Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield, director Stella Meghie and producer Will Packer, Culture in Film: Filmmakers and cast discuss the important of representation in the industry, the significance of being both in front of and behind the camera, and why this story matters, and The Film Through Photographs: Explore the use of photography throughout the film as the cast and filmmakers delve into how the photographs, and use of such, told stories beyond capability of word or action.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

THE PHOTOGRAPH is a charming story of two people who have their own feelings about life and love without realizing that the past can shape those feelings. Mae is the young woman trying to understand a mother who had her own secrets all while fighting off the idea of love. Michael put all his efforts into a career as a writer so love wasn’t something he was looking for either, yet – here they both are.

Cozy up and prepare for the story of parents, their children and love.

In the end – one photograph can bring a memory that lasts a lifetime!