If Denzel Washington’s last directorial outing Fences was an Academy Award-nominated portrayal of dysfunctional families, then A Journal For Jordan is its cutesy, cookie-cutter follow-up. Based on the memoirs of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dana Canedy, it’s a thin, mostly uneventful relationship flick, enlivened by engaging perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances by Chanté Adams and Michael B. Jordan.###Virgil Williams’ screenplay sketches Canedy’s love story with First Sergeant Charles Monroe King (Jordan) as a melodrama without the 
drama (a melo). In a typical case of career-over-eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything, Dana’s pursuit of success in her career as a New York Times journalist sees her put matters of the heart on the back burner. However, a (not-so) chance encounter puts King — a soldier who had served under her father — on her doorstep.###The two quickly in/with regard to’concerning’regarding m the type of mushy union that you would find nestled in a Valentine’s Day card that plays Stevie Wonder jingles when you open it: dates in Central Park, coyness with regards to’concerning’with respect to the sleeping arrangements, a bit — remember this is 2022 — where neither of the lovestruck couple can end a phone call (“No, you hang up”). It’s a sweet-natured but not peculiar ly grapple ping love story, the merely’barely fly in the ointment coming when Dana acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s upset when Charles doesn’t call because he’s looking after one his soldiers. It feels contrived, and sets up a thematic idea around a soldier caught between his relationship and loyalty to his unit that never becomes compelling.###It’s a movie that does eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything it can to dissipate tension.###Washington’s direction feels more small-screen than enormous’vast’massive’tremendous — save an impressionistic opening teasing Charlie’s death, he does little of interest with framing, lighting or editing — and the film’s criss-crossing timelines are tough’challenging’demanding’awkward to keep track of. To make matters more disjointed, it in/with regard to’concerning’regarding acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s to make space in/with regard to’concerning’regarding either of the things mentioned 
in the film’s title, Jordan (Jalon Christian, charming) and the journal (some feat considering the film is over two hours long). Both feel shoehorned in at the end in a film that becomes utterly detached from its first act. It’s a movie that does eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything it can to dissipate tension — we know Dana and Charles’ relationship works out because they possess’own’nurse a son, and we learn Charles is killed on duty in Iraq from the acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure -go. As such, A Journal For Jordan plays out like a two-hour in/with regard to’concerning’regarding mality.###Still, Adams and Jordan are an endearing couple, the in/with regard to’concerning’regarding mer intense’fierce’exquisite as a woman who struggles with affection, shaded by her military upbringing; the latter as a wide-eyed soldier with an unlikely knack in/with regard to’concerning’regarding pointillist paintings, finding some nakedly emotional moments to round out his polite-to-a-fault soldier. The pair create authentic extransform’alter s of affection which, in an age where Black love stories that aren’t rooted in trauma are a rarity in Hollywood, is refreshing. It’s just a shame that the rest of the film couldn’t match up to them.