(Could there ever have been so few pedestrians on New York City streets in real life without a natural disaster accounting for it?) They’re wearing clothes that are perfectly color-coordinated, each in a combination of blue and intense sun-yellow garments.
They’re walking in a dream of young love that glorifies the city and clears away all obstacles, especially other people. The opening shot is a gorgeous overhead view of that couple at the center of the story, Tisha Rivers (Kiki Layne) and Fonny Hunt (Stephan James). To get a quick sense of it, just imagine the closest thing to church music playing over images of an extraordinarily sweet and beautiful young black couple walking down New York City streets so lovely even the trash in the gutters is sanctified. Nobody else is likely to sit in the theater uneasily clutching the arm handles of their seat during the most beatific parts of this film. I blame all those gleefully impious Loony Tunes cartoons that comprised the basis of my childhood education. The great James Baldwin’s 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk has been adapted by writer-director Barry Jenkins ( Moonlight) with tremendous reverence, as if trying to fulfill a sacred trust.
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