Kasi Lemmons' Talk to Me is a film about radio personality Petey Greene, that shutters through three decades of his life, beginning in 1966 with his stint on the PA system of the prison he is incarcerated in to his rise to media prominence. Talk to Me has many of the trappings of a biopic and sadly frequently falls on being formulaic in many ways of films of this genre: the subject's heavy boozing and chronic infidelity, maudlin sentimentality, and the obligatory posthumous commemoration. But it also gives us a clue to its subject's appeal: his connection with his audience and community, his ability to speak brazenly and his compulsion to skewer convention.

The film isn't simply a story of Greene (Cheadle), however, it is just as much about his complicated relationship with Dewey Hughes (Ejifor), the producer that gives Greene his first break. At first Greene doggedly pursues Hughes in the hopes of landing a show on his radio station, and this first portion of the film relies on the levity of the old and familiar comic contrast between the hip Greene and the straight-laced Hughes. Cheadle embodies his role, bestowing it with a crackling electricity, while Ejifor, understanding the drive his character possesses, gives a charged performance that will not allow Cheadle's more flamboyant role to eclipse his.

When Greene's career skyrockets, Hughes sees his potential for reaching his own aspirations vicariously. That pursuit inevitably ensues into bitter divisions. Perhaps because the script is overworked, the tone of the film is inconsistent: the comic levity of its start sits uneasy with heaviness in the middle. But it succeeds in highlighting two divergent and insoluble ambitions: Hughes' desire for success epitomized by the mainstream and recognition, and Greene's impulse to speak the truth to his own community.

Spanning the tumultuous years of the 60s, 70s and into the 80s, Lemmons takes on the challenge of historical place. At its most successful is the segment studded in the film's center of Washington DC erupting with the hurting anguish of a community losing its leader after the assassination of Doctor Martin Luther King. It's that powerful and effecting achievement that suggests the film needed to keep its attention on that place, weaving Petey Greene's story into the story of DC. That it fails to do so, having communicated Greene's identification with his city as so essential is sadly ironic. Consequently, the narrative loses its sense of time and space, breezy costume changes notwithstanding. The rousing eulogy to the thousand of attendees at the film's end closes with Dewey Hughes declaration, 'This is Petey Greene's Washington!' If only Lemmons could project Petey Greene's Washington believably.

Director: Kasi Lemmons
Cast: Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Taraji P. Henson, Cedric the Entertainer, Martin Sheen. 2007. 118 min