ROB PEACE
(director/writer: Chiwetel Ejiofor; screenwriter: based on the book by Jeff Hobbs; cinematographer: Ksenia Sereda; editor: Masahiro Hirakubo; music: Jeff Russo; cast: Jay Will (Rob Peace), Mary J. Blige (Jackie Peace), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Skeet Douglas), Camila Cabello (Naya Vazquez), Michael Kelly (Father Leahy), Mare Winningham (Yale Professor Durham); Runtime: 119; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Andrea Calderwood, Antoine Fuqua, Rebecca Hobbs, Simon Horsman, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet, Kat Samick, Jeffrey Soros; Hill District Media/Republic Pictures; 2024-in English & Portuguese)
“Never reaches its potential.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The English actor turned director, Chiwetel Ejiofor (“The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind”), uses a true-life story for his conventional drama. It’s based on the book by Jeff Hobbs. Though uneven and sometimes unfocused, there are several powerful moments that grab your attention.
The biopic is set in the 2000s and 1980s. The protagonist’s childhood is during the 1980s in a drug-infested and crime-ridden urban area of Newark, New Jersey.
Rob Peace (Jay Will) grew up in such a grim setting. His mom Mary (Mary J. Blige) recognized at an early age he was an intellectually gifted child and tried to steer him away from bad influences in the neighborhood.
In the 2000s Rob attends Yale as a science prodigy under the tutelage of the respected professor (Mare Winningham), and has a girlfriend Camila Cabello (Naya Vazquez).
Rob remains via phone and prison visits in constant contact with his drug dealer father Skeets (Chiwetel Ejiofor), serving a life-sentence for a double-murder. Dad maintains his innocence. Rob insists “He didn’t do it,” and only asks “How are we gonna get him out?”
To finance his father’s plea for a new trial, Rob sells weed on campus. He expands his drug operation when his untrustworthy dad calls for more money needed for legal fees.
It’s a gritty and provocative period film. Though heartfelt and sensitively acted by Jay Will, it never registers as emotionally impactful as it should. Instead it becomes a flawed character study that never reaches its potential.
It played at the Sundance Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 9/3/2024 GRADE: C+
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