A Journal for Jordan

"The movie is too tidy to ever really feel like a living, breathing thing."

"Uninspired and ultimately forgettable."

"The film is earnest, if also a bit slick, though not so much as to keep it from being affecting."

"Back in the 1980s, it would have been right down the middle of the plate. Today, it seems like a film out of time. But that's not necessarily a bad thing."

"(A Journal for Jordan) wears its heart on its sleeve, unpretentious and sincere as a homemade valentine."

"A disappointment."

"Denzel Washington directs this adaptation... with care, respect and a deep-seated knowledge of the Black love stories that don't make it to the big screen nearly enough."

"This portrait is too clean, too unquestioning, too accepting, to get to the marrow."

"Feels particularly dated and often times emotionally cloying."

"There are three different movies packed into Denzel Washington's A Journal for Jordan, and none of them are very good."

"Even scenes in which (Jordan) saunters around shirtless, spontaneously starts doing pushups or flashes a coy smile aren't enough to keep one fully engaged..."

"It trades in cloying sentimentality and romance, the gooey melodrama done no favors by Washington's stiff, anonymous direction."