A Journal for Jordan is based on the true story of Dana Canedy (Chante Adams) and her unlikely relationship with 1st Sergeant Charles King (Michael B Jordan). Their chance meeting leads to a real-life love story straight out of a romance novel.
When Charles is deployed to Iraq after 9/11, he writes all the life advice he has in a journal that he leaves for his son, Jordan.
Based on the memoir A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor (by Dana Canedy), the story follows Dana’s perspective as a single woman meeting and falling in love with a man that’s loyal to the military and the men and women he’s responsible for. Chante Adams does an incredible job portraying the highs and lows that come with loving someone that loyal to their job – especially when the job can potentially put them in harm’s way. Adams, who most know from The Photograph and Roxanne Roxanne shows real star power in this performance. She has the potential to be a leading lady for years to come.
What makes this love story work on film is how simple and subtle the story is. Nothing outrages happens. It’s not silly, over sexualized, or exaggerated. It’s a film about two people falling in love and how it changes your life – the good and the bad.
The film isn’t 100% serious all the time. Some of the best and most entertaining moments come from Charles and Dana’s first meeting and the first day the spend alone in New York City. Those scenes are very honest and awkwardly hilarious in the best way.
This is truly a film about love. The love characters have for each other and the grief expressed through the characters is a response to the deep love that’s felt and shown throughout the film.
It’s not often we get films like A Journal For Jordan that are this honest in its depiction of relationships. It could’ve easily been a cookie cutter story about a “big city girl” meeting a “well-mannered military man” but thankfully the film has a lot more to tell and tells that story well.
Grade: B
the people's critic 