While a story about an innocent couple in love, the story of
If Beale Street Could Talk is unremittingly
sad. It’s only uplifting because the
viewer comes to sympathize with all of the main characters.
Tish (Kiki Layne), a 19-year-old black adult living in Harlem,
falls in love with Fonny (Stephan James), a young black man who will soon face
false allegations of raping a Puerto Rican woman (Emily Rios) who immigrated to
the United States. Facing a life
sentence, Fonny learns that Tish is carrying his child while he is in prison.
Fonny ultimately never gets to face his accuser. In fact, the accuser never identifies Fonny
as the rapist until coached on how to pick him out in a police lineup. The two individuals who were with Fonny at
the time the rape allegedly went down were Tish and their friend, Daniel (Brian
Tyree Henry). Yet Tish is presumed bias. And Daniel, with his own criminal record, does
not make for a credible witness in the eyes of white authorities.
While Fonny’s young white lawyer fights for acquittal and
while Tish’s mother, Sharon (Regina King), travels to Puerto Rico to speak with
the accuser (who has since fled the country), Fonny never receives a fair
trial. No one is successful in getting
the accuser to retract her story, and the woman’s disappearance from the
country prevents anyone from contradicting her story in court. Yet despite all obstacles, the couple remain
together and never betray each other’s trust.
By the end of the film, some half-a-dozen years later, Fonny is still in
prison receiving visits from Tish and their young son (Kaden Byrd).
Trish’s family is incredibly supportive to her throughout
this ordeal, despite the fact that she has a child outside of wedlock. Sharon, in particular, is always as Tish’s
side. But outside of Fonny’s father,
Frank (Michael Beach), Fonny’s family want nothing more to do with her or the
unborn child. They consider her a
seducer and a sinner. Frank, estranged
from his unnamed wife (Aunjanue Ellis) – a religious zealot, and apparently estranged
from his daughters as well, works with Tish’s father, Joseph (Colman Domingo),
to raise money for Tish and Fonny. The
two fathers attempt to help in any way they can.
A great portion of the film deals with the rigged system
that will not give a young man like Fonny a chance. It doesn’t matter that Fonny is an
intelligent and polite young man. He’s a
sculptor and is fluent in a number of languages. Even so, the authorities do not judge Fonny
by anything other than the color of his skin.
Even without a witness to testify against Fonny, his fate remains in the
hands of a racist police officer (Ed Skrein).
Fonny eventually pleads guilty in return for a lesser sentence (though
it’s not much of a plea deal considering that Fonny is still in prison several
years later).
While mostly applauded by critics, I have mixed feelings about
If Beale Street Could Talk. The acting of Kiki Layne and especially
Regina King stands out. And at no time
during the film is the plight of the two main characters treated with anything
but sensitivity. We always find the main
characters likeable. What makes this
particularly remarkable is the fact that the viewer never feels manipulated by
the storyline or the film direction. Director
Barry Jenkins does not use gimmicks to make the movie feel maudlin.
Yet though the movie is less than two hours (119 minutes to
be exact), it feels much longer. Someone
else I know while sharing their view of the movie mentioned how she could not
wait for the film to end. She didn’t want to see the two lovers staring at each
other through glass window during prison visits anymore. And indeed, we continue to see that scene over
and over again throughout the film.
There is little humor in the film to break up the feeling of
oppression. And though the two
characters are still together at the end, they remain separated by prison
walls.
James Baldwin wrote the novel If Beale Street Could Talk for
which the film’s based. The film remains
loyal to his vision. Baldwin was a
complex man – an incredibly intelligent and gifted black man from a poor Harlem
neighborhood. His father was a minister
who happened also to be abusive. This
led to Baldwin turning away from his father’s teachings.
Baldwin was probably America’s most prominent 20th
Century black writer outside of Richard Wright.
Yet ironically, much of his fame came about due to his criticism of
Wright in Baldwin’s book of essays, Notes
of a Native Son. Baldwin, who in his
youth thought only the highest of Wright, criticized (possibly unjustly) the
latter’s novel, Native Son, for featuring
a protagonist, Bigger Thomas, who was angry and extremely violent. Baldwin may not have been able to separate Bigger
Thomas from its creator, Richard Wright.
Baldwin obviously was hoping for the creation of more positive black
characters.
But while even Richard Wright did not want to see Bigger
Thomas emulated, Bigger Thomas was not a passive character. Comparatively speaking, the characters of Fonny
and Tish, for all of their gentleness and virtue, remain passive and
practically resigned to their fate.
I can’t speak to Fonny’s taking a plea in order to gain a
shorter sentence. For all practical
reasons, it’s understandable why he did do this. Also, we have to admire these characters for
their perseverance. But the film and the
story ultimately offers no solution. So
despite it being thoughtful and even intelligent film that does not make
viewers shed any false tears, it remains an unrelentingly sorrowful movie to
watch.
January 30, 2019
© Robert S. Miller 2019
