Talk to Me
Director: Kasi Lemmons. Screenplay: Cinematography: Stéphane Fontaine. Film editing: Terilyn A. Shropshire. Production design: Warren Alan Young. Music: Terence Blanchard. Producers: Joe Fries, Mark Gordon, Sidney Kimmel, Josh McLaughlin. With: Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martin Sheen, Cedric the Entertainer, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Mike Epps, Taraji P. Henson, Sean MacMahon, Richard Chevolleau, Martin Randez, Peter MacNeill, J. Miles Dale, Todd William Schroeder, Bruce McFee, Adam Gaudreau. USA. 118 min. 2007.
Cheadle is terrific as Petey Greene, a fictionalized version of the real-life former convict who became a Washington, DC, radio star in the 1960s thanks to his sharp tongue, moody temperament, and total lack of patience with the self-styled ruling class that dictates morality, ethics, and even law in money-driven American society. Chiwetel Ejiofor is also first-rate as Dewey Hughes, the broadcast exec who gives Petey a chance, guides him to skyrocketing success, and gets results he didn’t bargain for when the mercurial protégé gets fed up with his celebrity status, regarding it as hollow to the core. Lemmons and company put more emphasis on Greene’s personality than on the dynamics of media stardom in the '60s era, but the movie injects a reasonable degree of thoughtfulness into its fast-moving comic and dramatic scenes. This is no “Good Night, and Good Luck.” or even “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” but it will do until George Clooney hops into the director’s chair again. – David Sterritt
