On the surface, “Jason’s Lyric” is about Jason Alexander and his longing to be with the girl of his dreams. He just doesn’t know how far that dream will take him. I would argue that the love story surrounding Jason and Lyric is secondary to the love story between Jason and his family. Let me explain.
Jason is a assistant manager of TV repair store in Houston, TX. His boss tells him about an opening in Dallas to be thee manager of his own store. Now, this seems to be exactly what Jason wants, as far as his career is concerned. I’ll put it in a better context for the current times. Imagine you are a social media manager of a hotel. They call you to say, “Hey, we want to extent to you a promotion to handle social for the entire chain of hotels.” You get all excited, and then they tell you you have to move to NY. This is Jason’s dilemma.
To start, he’s really excited about the opportunity until he realizes that this means he will have to move to Dallas and leave his mom. The other things that has been haunting Jason for years is witnessing the death of his father, Mad Dog, played brilliantly by Forest Whitaker. So, even though his mom has her own life, a job she loves, and is not a damsel in distress, the decision to leave his mom for a better job weighs on him. And then, we meet Joshua. Bokeem Woodbine is a gem and I described why is this post. Read at your leisure. Joshua is what you call a problem. Plain and simple. Jason has taken it upon himself (with a little pushing from his mother) to make sure that Josh doesn’t cause any harm to himself or others. Well, we see that Jason has to pick his little brother up from jail, so we understand that this mission is a failure for Jason.
Because Josh got of prison and got his mom fired, Jason goes into protector mode and tells his boss that he cannot take the job in Dallas. Later, in walks Lyric (Jada Pinkett at the time). Lyric is not part of Jason’s plan. Jason’s plan was to have a good job, take care of his momma, and keep Josh out of trouble. Notice, nowhere in there is find love. Stay with me. I’m coming back around to my point here.
Normally, with these types of movies, a man has to make a decision between his family and his girl, and he usually picks the girl. Usually, this causes a rift in the family because the mom doesn’t trust the girl or the family thinks there’s something odd about her. There was none of that in this case….well, not with the mom at least. Josh was the problem.
Let’s go back to the relationship between Jason and Josh. I cannot think of a relationship between brother’s that was like theirs. Jason’s guilt for killing his dad to save his brother and his mom is what makes him not want to leave or feel comfortable leaving his family. Josh has no guilt, but Jason is the only person in his family who believes in him. Jason sees the potential in Josh when everyone else thinks he’s a lost cause. I also believe that Josh doesn’t feel secure or safe with his mom because she probably likened Josh’s behavior, and probable undiagnosed mental illness, to his dad. For him, she never saw him as a child who was probably crying out for the love and attention of his mom. She saw him as continuation of her failed marriage to Mad Dog. A punishment, if you will, for whatever we didn’t see that lead to their issues. (I believe it was more than Vietnam.)
So the relationship between Josh and Jason isn’t just a relationship between brothers. It’s a dependency on Josh’s part. If he loses Jason to some broad, who will be there for him? He says this to Lyric, in so many ways, before shooting her. Lyric has friends, she has her brother, and she has Jason. Jason has his mother, Lyric, Josh, and the love of the neighborhood. What does Josh have? In his mind, he just has Jason and he cannot live without his brother. This is also probably why he kills himself at the end of the film. He recognizes that he cannot keep Jason from what he loves, and it’s not to say that he doesn’t love Josh, but he has a new love and Josh cannot compete. So, the best thing for Josh to do, instead of going back to jail for shooting a woman who loves his brother, is to no longer be in his way.
In conclusion, this movie is less about the love story between Jason and Lyric, but a story of love between brothers or even the dependency on one.
What do you think? When was the last time you watched “Jason’s Lyric” the movie? (Not the play even though it’s the sane story with some of the same people.)
