Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station

Rated R and Released in Grand Rapids 7/26/13

Reviewed 7/31/13 at Celebration North in Grand Rapids, MI

with Gary

3 1/2 out of 5 Js in QUIET Rating System

If you are interested in feeling warm and fuzzy when you leave a movie, you might want to skip Fruitvale Station. Don't get me wrong, it is a great film, but if this doesn't provoke emotion you might need to get checked out. This is a true story dramatization of tragic circumstances at a train station in Oakland, California. While the story leaps around a bit, it ultimately ends up on New Year's Eve 2009. Gary and I both thought the portrayal was well done.

Oscar Grant brilliantly, played by Michael B. Jordan, is a 22 year old trying to turn his life around for his girlfriend Sophia (Melonie Diaz) and his darling daughter. He's been around the block so to speak and has spent some time in jail. He keeps hitting road blocks that he tries to not let hinder him. He has a strong relationship with his mother Wanda (Octavia Spencer) and he doesn't want to disappoint her. After he loses his supermarket job, bills are piling up and he considers turning back to selling drugs in order to support his family. He keeps considering his loved ones, especially his daughter, and it drives him to do the right thing. You can't help but feel his plight, even though in the past he made bad choices that landed him in trouble. He is really trying to catch a break, even by begging for his job back. On New Year's Eve, Oscar and his girlfriend join friends in San Fransisco for the fireworks celebration. At his mother's urging to stay safer they take the Bart (local train). Riding back to Oakland, Oscar is confronted by a thug he encountered while locked up a few years prior. A fight ensues and Bart authorities are called.

The over aggressive, very incompetent police blow it before they even start and their actions end up costing dearly: someone's life. It is heartbreaking to say the least, but the maddening part is what does or doesn't happen thereafter. Several observers recorded the whole scenario with their cell phones, so with that evidence it is implausible on the so-called justice. Coincidentally Gary and I watched a story on this movie a few days prior and they mentioned that the Bart chief made all of his officers watch Fruitvale Station and probably will continue in the future for training. If it is anything slightly redeeming, hopefully there will be education and lessons learned so this preventable tragedy will never be repeated.

QUIET Rating system: 3 1/2 Js

Quality: JJJ

Understood story:  JJJJ

Interest: JJJJ

Entertainment:  JJJj

Time:  JJJ