In the midst of many challenges and difficult circumstances, Tish, a Harlem woman, lives a controversial life as she enters a 24-hour race to prove her lover's innocence. Teach seems to have her first baby, which makes things even more dangerous. It seems like a story full of love, tenderness and challenge to a young couple and their families and their conflict-ridden lives.
James Laxton's cinematography is even more richly hued than his work on Jenkins's Moonlight, and the sound design and Nicholas Britell's score add to the movie's brimming sensory pleasures.
This movie works as a timeless romance, a family drama, a legal thriller and a poignant social commentary. A great American novel has been turned into a great American film.
Jenkins performs a miracle avoiding bathos while baring raw emotion, presenting the cruelty of the world and its bitter fruit without dulling the love that makes living worthwhile.
Just as the novel version of If Beale Street Could Talk moves between love story and protest novel, a balance Baldwin strikes throughout many of his works, Jenkins' adaptation uses flashbacks to oscillate between two worlds.
