Fruitvale Station

I'm not sure how fair Fruitvale Station is as a movie. In a way, I sort of felt manipulated by it. However, any emotional manipulation that it attempts, is completely and absolutely effective. So for a movie to pack as emotional a punch as this one did, is a huge success as far as I'm concerned.

Fruitvale Station is the true story of Oscar Grant, a drug dealer who spent time in prison, also a loving son and father, who was gunned down by a police officer in the early morning hours of New Years Day 2009. The movie takes place almost entirely during his last 24 hours, with the one exception of a flashback to his prison stint a year earlier. One of the criticisms I have read of this film is that it tries to make Oscar (played to perfection by Michael B. Jordan of Friday Night Lights and The Wire fame) into some sort of angel. I couldn't agree less with this. Oscar is a deeply complex character, and, in Jordan's apt hands, becomes a flawed man we care so deeply about. Oscar is trying to clean up his act. We see him do a lot of good things during his last day, but we also see what a struggle it is for him. He's no angel. He's cheated on his girlfriend recently, he is still selling dope, jobless, angry. But he is trying to be a better man. Who knows what would have happened had he survived New Year's 2009?? Maybe he would have cleaned up his act and gotten a job and been a better man. But I think the sad truth is that it's just as likely he started selling drugs again anyway.

This is the performance of a lifetime for Jordan, who has always been so good in his previous roles. He is completely riveting, playing this very flawed, very complex character. And while this movie belongs almost entirely to him, the third act is securely on the shoulders of Melonie Diaz, who plays his long suffering girlfriend Sophina, the mother of his daughter. Most of the emotional punch in the gut comes courtesy of her performance. Then there is Octavia Spencer, who is great as well, as Oscar's stoic mother.

There are a few things that I took issue with, but they were so minor it is almost not even worth mentioning. I'm sure the filmmakers worked painstakingly to put together the series of events for his very last day. I'm sure they talked to all the people he spent time with to fill in the gaps. However, there are a few things it seems they threw into the script to make Oscar look like a better person; things that no one seemingly saw him do that day. So how do they know that he was an emotional wreck over a dog who got hit by a car? And he just so happens to meet this nice white woman whom he helps at the grocery store and then hours later she coincidentally is on the very same train car as he is when the fight breaks out that kick starts the events that lead to his death? Plus, there is the reason why the cop killed Oscar. I'm not saying it's a good excuse in the slightest, but until the postscript, it is presented more as a random act of violence than anything else. We are left wondering for a good minutes about why he did what he did until it is finally revealed in the postscript that he thought his gun was his taser. Was the way Oscar acting a good reason to be shot and killed?? No. But it wasn't a bad reason to be tased, I guess.

Fruitvale Station is far from perfect. But what it lacks in flawlessness, it more than makes up for with the emotional punch it packs. This is a movie that will haunt you long after the credits roll. The kind that will stay with you and make you rethink so much of what is happening in the world around you. We need more movies like this. The kind that stop caring about being technically perfect, and start caring about eliciting emotions. Is some of the film heavy handed? Sure. But, in the end, it barely matters.

Grade: B+