“It wasn’t what I was expecting” is perhaps the cheapest piece of criticism that can be lobbed at a work of art, but in the case of, oh, a fact-based melodrama that pulls from both a) real life and b) the memoir written about it, some basic expectations are inevitable.
Denzel Washington’s “A Journal for Jordan” certainly has a straightforward enough premise — per its own synopsis, it’s “based on the true story of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King (Michael B.
Jordan) a soldier deployed to Iraq who begins to keep a journal of love and advice for his infant son” — but the end result is that audiences might worry they’ve stepped into the wrong theater.
No, it’s not what you’re expecting, and what it is isn’t very good, either.Based (apparently?) on Dana Canedy’s memoir, Washington’s film kicks off with a
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