The outsized talents of Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Taraji Henson go a long way in compensating for the undernourished script about real-life ex-con-turned-Washington D.C. radio and TV personality Ralph Waldo “Petey” Green Jr. (Cheadle).
Petey became a beacon of hope for thousands of disenfranchised blacks in the late ‘60s. Co-writer/director Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) fails to shape the biography drama after the likable Petey storms the airwaves of WOL-AM with his anti-establishment message under the benevolent guidance of station programmer Dewey Hughes (Ejiofor).
In spite of Cheadle’s forceful performance, the watered down script fails to capture the rawness and the logic of a groundbreaking social commentator who spoke truth to power on a daily basis.
Rated R. 118 mins.
