Director Barry Jenkins made waves in 2016 with his breakout hit and eventual best picture winner at the Oscars, “Moonlight.” After that acclaim, much curiosity surrounded his next project, “If Beale Street Could Talk.” Jenkins’ latest effort is an uneven movie, but the highs make it well worth a watch.

The film is based on a James Baldwin novel of the same name. It follows two young adults in love, Tish Rivers (Kiki Layne) and Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt (Stephan James), in Harlem in the 70s. Things are going well for the couple, until Fonny is charged with a rape he did not commit, and Tish must prove his innocence.

The acting in this movie is fantastic, it starts with the remarkable Kiki Layne. She is amazingly vulnerable and open, allowing viewers to easily sympathize with her. She gives a brilliant, raw performance that is among the best female leading turns of 2018.

James is almost equally fantastic. He is endlessly charming and charismatic. There is also a richness to his performance that makes Fonny feel real because we can sense the pain and love that are so central to the character through James’ acting. He and Layne also share amazing chemistry.

The supporting cast is terrific, too, with Regina King, Colman Domingo and Teyonah Paris contributing particularly strong work.

Although the acting is great, the highlight of “If Beale Street Could Talk” is the Oscar-worthy cinematography. Jenkins and cinematographer James Laxton make this the most sumptuous, lush and gorgeous film I have seen all year. The lighting is warm and inviting. The colors of everything, including the costumes of Caroline Eselin, are vibrant. The frequent close-ups are beautiful in their composition and lighting.

But all these elements are not just there to look pretty. They help capture the romanticism of the central couple, helping viewers see the world as they see it. For example, those close-ups lend an intimacy to the proceedings that is critical to this story.

Laxton and Jenkins collaborated on “Moonlight,” another film where the cinematography is the best part. Jenkins also teams up here again with Nicholas Britell for the score, which is submlime. It, too, helps give the film that swooning, romantic tone that it needs, sweeping moviegoers up in the love story at this movie’s core.

My issues with “If Beale Street Could Talk” almost all have to do with when Jenkins, who also wrote the film, gets away from that core.

The first 20-30 minutes of this movie are among the best I have seen all year, with the scene of the two families meeting to discuss Tish’s pregnancy maybe the best of 2018. I loved the film Jenkins set up, with this moving and tragic romance at the center and the familial side plots that would allow Jenkins to explore other ideas. I was totally in on this movie.

As the movie went on, I became less and less invested. That started to happen during the sex scene. The scenes started to feel like they went on a couple minutes too long and became redundant. Those wonderful opening scenes completely set this film up, particularly the authentic romance.

But Jenkins seemed to want to show us more of those scenes, such as the one where Trish and Fonny are looking at an apartment. While that sequence has a great climax, it felt unnecessary because the purpose just seemed to be to show us more of how great these people are as a couple and how tragic it is that they can’t be together. Since that was already done so brilliantly, it was less effective.

Jenkins also diverts slightly from the main relationship to explore some political themes, and those did not work as well as they could have. They simply never felt organic. The insert shots of the still photographs, for example, are literally inserted to make their point.

That’s not to say those scenes aren’t effective because they are, to an extent work at all because they do to an extent. They just derailed the love story viewers are so invested in. I simply wanted Jenkins to find a more natural way to weave these ideas into the story.

With that being said, I have a feeling these issues may diminish or disappear on a second viewing because I may find it easier to get in rhythm with the film now that I know how it operates. Even with that belief, a second viewing of “If Beale Street Could Talk” would be worth it for the cinematography alone, but the outstanding acting and score only make it that much more worthwhile. I give it 3 and a half out of five stars.

“If Beale Street Could Talk” is rated R for language and some sexual content. It stars Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Colman Domingo and Teyonah Paris and runs 1 hour and 59 minutes.