A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN
An Uplifting, Patriotic Story of Love, Loss and Remembrance
What You Need To Know
A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN is a moving drama about a black writer telling her son the story of how she met and fell in love with his father, an American soldier who died in Iraq when the boy was a baby but left a journal of advice for the son. Told partly in flashback, A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN tells a heartfelt, patriotic story about coping with loss, with a strong Christian, moral worldview, but it’s marred by foul language and a nude scene.
After introducing New York Times reporter, Dana Canedy, and her infant son, Jordan, in 2007, the movie shows how Dana met Jordan’s father, First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, in 1998. They meet at her parents’ house during a Thanksgiving dinner. Eleven years into a 20-year career, Charles has served under Dana’s retired father and now trains a platoon of his own. Her father’s life has been transformed by Christ, and Charles is also a Christian.
Romance soon blossoms between Dana and Charles. She’s intrigued by his strength of character and by his interest in painting. However, after the Islamic terrorist attacks against America in 2001, Charles is sent to Iraq to serve with his platoon.
One day, Dana watches on TV a huge IED explosion against a convoy of American troops in Baghdad. Panicked, she immediately calls Charles on his cellphone and says, she wants to have a baby with him. Charles asks her to marry him, and she says yes.
Dana and Charles start preparing for the baby, and Jordan is born in March 2006. Dana gives Charles a journal for him to write things to tell Jordan when he gets older. However, seven months later, his convoy is attacked, and Charles is killed when shrapnel hits his body.
After mourning her fiancé’s death, Dana looks at the box of belongings she received from Charles and the military. She finds the journal where Charles wrote down many things addressed to Jordan, to tell him how much he loves his son and give him advice on growing up to be a good man.
When Jordan gets older, Dana gives him the journal and starts talking to her son more openly about his father. Jordan clearly is moved by both his mom and his father’s journal, and he decides to do something special for his mother.
A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN is a lovely, well-acted movie about love, family, honor, pride, gratitude, and remembrance. It has equal amounts of joy, laughter and tears. Viewers will be greatly moved by the story this movie tells.
A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN, which is directed by Denzel Washington, has a strong Christian, moral worldview with strong patriotic moments. The movie honors Charles King’s tragic sacrifice for his country and his men. It’s also a tribute to all the Gold Star families out there who’ve suffered similar losses of a family member.
The movie does have, however, lots of foul language. There’s also the matter of Dana and Charles having sexual relations before getting married. In one scene, for instance, Charles asks a pregnant Dana to get married when he returns home to see her during a brief furlough, but she says, no, she’d rather spend as much quality time with him as possible. In addition, before Dana gets pregnant, there’s a gratuitous implied nude kissing scene between Dana and Charles where they embrace in her New York apartment.
MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for the objectionable, racy content in A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN.
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong Christian, moral worldview with very strong patriotic content in a story about a couple that gets engaged and has a baby together, with scenes of prayer and references to God and Jesus, but the man dies in war before they tie the knot, so the movie’s positive worldview is marred by some unbiblical and antinomian, or lawless, behavior
Foul Language
16 obscenities (many “s” words) and 12 light exclamatory profanities (mostly OMG)
Violence
Woman watches on TV a large bomb explode where some American troop vehicles were traveling
Sex
A naked man and woman embrace and kiss but camera cuts away, implying fornication, engaged couple has a baby together before marriage (man dies during war, and they never do get married), couple starts kissing in bed, but woman breaks it off, and they go to sleep, and woman tells her boyfriend that her father cheated on her mother at one point, but the father seems to have changed his ways
Nudity
Rear and upper male nudity and implied full female and full male nudity in one scene when nude couple embraces (the woman’s explicit body parts are not visually revealed), plus upper male nudity in other scenes
Alcohol Use
Brief alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No tobacco smoking, but sister’s brother and sister are smoking marijuana outside when she goes to talk to them after a holiday dinner;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Engaged couple has two or so heated arguments about his commitment to his men.
