There's a scene in the first 20 minutes of Ryan Coogler's drama Fruitvale Station that offers some disturbing foreshadowing for the main character. Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), stops at a gas station to fill up his car, and notices a stray pit bull a few feet away. He kneels down to pet it, and then returns to filling his car. He then hears a car speed by behind him and hit something. That something turns out to be the dog, who soon dies from its injuries. What makes this scene a reflection of Oscar is that pit bulls tend to be misunderstood as violent animals, and this dog's life was cut short. Oscar was accused of wrongdoing by the police, and was gunned down.
In Coogler's film, which is based on a true story, he chronicles the final 24 hours in the life of Oscar. Because of the condensed time frame of the film, the audience is with Oscar through the entirety of his last day, from the interactions with his loving family to the errands of preparing for New Year's Eve to a harrowing clash with the police.
Oscar is a 22-year-old resident of Hayward, California who is trying to get his life in order after being released from prison. He wants to create a better lifestyle for his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz) and daughter Tatiana (Ariana Neal), while also trying to be a responsible and trustworthy son for his mother (Octavia Spencer). Everything that happens on the day of Dec. 31, 2008 eventually leads to Oscar and his friends having a confrontation with the police on a platform in the Fruitvale train station.
Michael B. Jordan presents his character as an individual who has an avid sincerity in wanting to improve his life and gain the respect of his family. He presents Oscar as a caring father, a loving husband and a devoted son. The ability with which he is able to display all of these sides to this character makes the prior knowledge of his untimely end all the more tragic. A true actor can lose himself in a role, and that's what happens with Jordan. He connects so well with his on-screen mother, wife, daughter and friends, that those bonds compliment the film's realistic aesthetic. The barrier between Jordan's portrayal of Oscar and the real Oscar is gone.
In their supporting roles as the women of Oscar's life, Octavia Spencer and Melonie Diaz bring the strong nature of their characters that keeps them going in tough times. Spencer plays her role as a mother who only wishes for the safety of her son and for him to improve his life. There's a flashback scene where she visits him in jail and tells him that she won't do it anymore if he won't better himself. She then leaves without giving him so much as a hug as he calls out to her and is restrained by security. While this is happening, the viewer see's the conflicted emotions on her face. She hates to be doing this to him, but knows it's the right thing to do.
Diaz portrays her character as a mother with the power to show strength in numerous hard situations, such as Oscar's killing, finding out that he had cheated on her at one point, and realizing he had lied to her about being able to find a job. But, when she has to tell her daughter that her father has died, the mother-daughter connection the two share becomes significantly more important because they will need each other now more than ever. In this scene, the viewer gets an idea of the strength that they will need to instill in each other in order to carry on.
The cinematography by Rachel Morrison successfully makes this film appear to be a day-in-the-life type of story, a tribute to Oscar. It is filmed with an unsteady camera in many long takes, creating the illusion of the story unfolding in real time. It plays out almost like a documentary, which helps in making the performances very grounded in reality.
Although the film only takes place in a single day, Coogler's screenplay is very immersive in Oscar's life. The way the story is constructed shows the kind of person that Oscar was and the lifestyle he wanted to gain with his family. Not only does the story show him trying to get his life together, but it also displays Oscar engaging in acts of kindness to strangers that he meets within his last 24 hours. It's quite an achievement to write a narrative that takes place over a limited time span, while still giving the audience an idea of exactly the type of person the protagonist is.
Fruitvale Station is not only a portrait of man who was, but of a man who could have been.
Final grade: A
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