A Journal for Jordan
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
16
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
RogerEbert.comNell MinowJan 3, 2022
It wears its heart on its sleeve, unpretentious and sincere as a homemade valentine. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyDec 22, 2021
Journal is Canedy’s story, but it’s Michael B. Jordan’s movie. Stalwart, quietly forceful, he seems positively . . . Denzelian. Read full review
63
Washington PostPat PaduaDec 21, 2021
Despite a story line that covers such fraught historical events as 9/11 and the Iraq War, the movie is too tidy to ever really feel like a living, breathing thing. Read full review
60
The New York TimesLisa KennedyDec 23, 2021
Denzel Washington directs this adaptation (the screenplay is by Virgil Williams) with care, respect and a deep-seated knowledge of the Black love stories that don’t make it to the big screen nearly enough. Read full review
58
The Film StageJohn FinkDec 30, 2021
A film such as this lives and dies by its leads, and both are wonderful on-screen together, creating a realistic love story that works well as they navigate the situation they both find themselves in. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyMary SollosiDec 23, 2021
Uninspired though it is, A Journal for Jordan delivers on the heartbreak of its premise. You will weep. So if that's what you're after, you couldn't ask for anything more. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaDec 23, 2021
The picture’s too rosy to feel real. Its elements of posthumous, loving advice and inevitable tragedy make for good bones. But this portrait is too clean, too unquestioning, too accepting, to get to the marrow. Read full review
50
The Associated PressMark KennedyDec 21, 2021
Washington earns his audience’s tears with an unrushed, unshowy style, letting an adult and very human relationship evolve on camera, skipping back and forth through years as it goes from love, birth, death and acceptance. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCary DarlingDec 20, 2021
A Journal for Jordan...is such a sweetly, well-intentioned film — one meant to bring a Christmastime lump in the throat in a year that gave us so many lumps of coal — that it feels churlish and downright Scrooge-like to point out its flaws. But the subject matter deserves better than this overlong melodrama spiked with occasional moments of welcome humor and pathos. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 16, 2021
It’s an ungainly film that loses focus time and again, drifting off to indulge its stars with extraneous scenes and badly-handled or simply unnecessary story threads. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyDec 20, 2021
Adapted from a 2008 memoir by former New York Times writer and editor Dana Canedy, it trades in cloying sentimentality and romance, the gooey melodrama done no favors by Washington’s stiff, anonymous direction. Read full review
42
The PlaylistNick AllenDec 16, 2021
As the overly long movie becomes about 130 minutes of his own propaganda, Washington romanticizes an ideal of man that has never actually existed, instead of a human being who did. Read full review
42
IndieWireKate ErblandDec 16, 2021
No, it’s not what you’re expecting, and what it is isn’t very good, either. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Simran HansJan 23, 2022
Adams is a vivacious screen presence with a twinkle in her eye, and Jordan can’t quite match her, unable to draw out any real inner turmoil in a character who is respectable to a fault. Read full review
40
Little White LiesMarina AshiotiJan 21, 2022
In spite of its trite predictability and overlong running time, it’s clearly a loving tribute with its heart in the right place, but the source material was perhaps treated with so much respect that the portrayal of the relationship fails to generate any heat or emotional intensity. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 21, 2022
Director Denzel Washington and his stars do their best with this bland, shallow and awkwardly structured film. Read full review
40
EmpireWhelan BarzeyJan 20, 2022
A Journal For Jordan is probably better suited to the page than the screen. Despite winning chemistry from Michael 
B. Jordan and Chanté Adams, Denzel Washington’s film etches a romance that rarely delivers substance or surprises. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeDec 23, 2021
It’s ultimately a mixed bag, with the final moments acquiring an emotional power that should be felt sooner. Read full review
40
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackDec 23, 2021
There is a specific tone to films scheduled for a holiday release – in short, they’re corny. And while that’s not always a bad thing, this year’s yuletide flick, A Journal for Jordan, feels particularly dated and often times emotionally cloying. Read full review
15
TheWrapCarlos AguilarDec 16, 2021
Certainly among the worst films of the year considering the reputable talent involved, this inspirational drama stains Washington’s directorial filmography. Read full review
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