Beginning with footage of the true-life event of the shooting of Oscar Grant in the very first few hours of 2009, we then go back 24 hours to the beginning of New Year’s Eve, with Oscar (Michael B Jordan) about to embark on a day that is hopefully going to set his life back on the right track.
His relationship with his girlfriend Sophina (Melanie Diaz) is on rocky ground due to his wandering eye, but their united love for their daughter might be enough to heal that wound. He’s just been fired from his job, his sister needs help paying rent, it’s his mother’s (Octavia Spencer) birthday… all these costs are adding up, and he’s got drugs to potentially sell, but that’s how he winded up in prison just two years previously.
Writer/director Ryan Coogler and his leading man to a great job of shading Oscar with layers of grey, neither painting him a hero he believes himself to be, nor the bad guy that anyone on the outside might perceive him to be. He is a good man, but one who is willing to do bad things in order to help out himself and his family.
The issue is that for the first hour not a whole lot happens, as it’s just a lot of good actors wandering around interacting with each other. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, with the weight of the impending shooting there’s a constant longing that you’d just wish they’d get on with it and get to the good part.
Of course, when Oscar and his friends arrive at Fruitvale Station, everything reverses and you’ll be wanting the film to go back, and for Oscar not to be there. The tension is unbearable, and Coogler handles the horror, panic and confusion of what happens with a masterful hand.
Clearly a passion project for all involved, and definitely a story that needs to be told, filled with great performances and presented by a patient, intelligent director. By focusing solely on Oscar Grant however, there is a lot more of the event at Fruitvale Station that remains frustratingly ambiguous.