Better In Your Head?--IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

 

Spoiler Alert: it's not all right. I am afraid.

THE BOOK-Written by James Baldwin, released 1974

THE MOVIE-Directed & written by Barry Jenkins, released 2018

THE STORY-Young love in early Seventies Harlem. Tish and Fonny are together and forever. Fonny ain't perfect, but he ain't what they say, either. He's a lover, an artisan, a man. Tish, she's everything. Headstrong, heart stronger. They are stars, aching to touch ground. They are blessed. They are doomed.

MIND THE GAP-The fifth of Baldwin's six novels, Beale Street is the only of them narrated in a woman's voice. Certainly there are passages where Baldwin, a gay black man living in self-imposed exile, intrudes. In these moments, Tish sounds overly sophisticated, mature beyond her age and education.* Largely, though, the author crafted an authentic world of contrasting continents separated by sparkling salt water.

"She'd recognize him if he raped her again. But then it would no longer be rape. If you see what I mean." I, uh...I don't.

Wrongful imprisonment, corrupt police, protest and survive--if Beale Street could talk, I bet it would scream.

Fonny's family is composed almost entirely of rude, arrogant women who spit holy water and knock on dogwood. I hated them fiercely, even as my heart broke for them. 

Is birth a fresh start, or a continuation? The lovely truth is: maybe.

Mankind is a born violator. When Fonny's mother surprise-visits the woman who identified her son as a rapist, she does so out of love, out of despair...and out of options. But she is overstepping her boundaries, right? Or is an intention so righteous it excuses bad behavior? (Regina King owns this scene, the solitary instance where the movie exceeds.)

The individual's responsibility to the collective, and vice versa, are potent themes in Baldwin's work. At twenty-four years old, he fled America for Paris, where he wrote his greatest works. As the fight for civil rights raged, Baldwin threw himself into activism, lecturing students, protesting injustices and posing for magazine covers. He stood out as an astute, passionate advocate. And because he was gay, the movement shunned him. Imagine--fighting for justice alongside people you view as family and they ostracize you because of your sexual identity. 

BETTER IN YOUR HEAD-For Barry Jenkins to turn 200 unforgettable pages into two captivating hours, he'd need to check a daunting number of boxes. He'd need to approach the first-ever English-language adaptation of a Baldwin novel with respect, rather than reverence. He'd require a like-minded team. He'd need a wealth of self-belief and a dash of self-doubt, since a false sense of purpose is the little death of all big ideas. 

Although Beale Street the film falls short of Beale Street the book, Jenkins did not fall short in his artistic mission. His Beale Street is an epic expressionist poem. Vibrant passion, leisurely paced. Don't like the changed ending, though. A black-and-white sledgehammer blow replaced with a full-color palpitation. The difference between "really good" and "great," in one decision. 

*These digressions are forgivable, because Baldwin's style--a flaming tongue, a roaring fist--is simply undeniable.