Talk to Me
Spanning 16 years, Talk To Me purports to be the tale of Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene’s rise from obscurity, I say purports, because the always excellent Don Cheadle is vying for Best Actor, and his equally excellent costar Chiwetel Ejiofor is only billed as Supporting Actor, and I think the story is about the two of them as much as Greene. Cheadle, as Petey, is the showboaty felon turned DJ around whom the story revolves. Ejiofor, as Dewey, the man who pulls Greene every step of the way, is the real lead of this story.
Dewey is a black man in white 1966 Washington DC, dancing that cultural step of caution and bravery to be true to himself and his dreams in a white man’s world. Petey, no matter where he is or what he’s doing, makes the world around him his world. If they don’t like it they can [insert colorful profanity]. Dewey builds Petey out of Petey’s innate raw materials, but Petey makes Dewey as well. Dewey is Ed McMahon to Petey’s Johnny Carson, because Dewey wants and fears becoming Carson (or Petey) himself.
Their relationship over the years grows and writhes and tangles and chokes. Ejiofor and Cheadle have fantastic screen chemistry as foils and as friends, and can solo or duet with equal prowess. It seemed as though Ejiofor’s story was being told through Cheadle’s. They complete each other gloriously. I feel a little like I am scolding the movie for ignoring Dewey, but really I am just trying to say you’re kind of getting two great and interesting character stories for the price of one.
From 1966 there were incredible social and sartorial changes, all of which get explored with relish and care. The design supports the social subtext but doesn’t showboat. (However, the wigs and hair were pretty fakey.) The backdrop of the 1960s civil rights upsurges bleeding into Vietnam and the beginning of Reaganomics is a vivid parallel to Petey’s evolution.
Cheadle plays Petey as a cocky force of nature, never to be tamed; in Act III, his eyes betray so much of what his character won’t admit. He has the dead 100 yard stare of a whore even while he is electric on screen.
Ejiofor has been topping himself for me ever since I first noticed him. From Love Actually, Serenity, and Kinky Boots, he is in every movie for every kind of person, and I get excited just seeing his name in the credits (and I don’t even have to spell check it any more)! I love watching Dewey in Pete’s shadow, filling the gaps in his own life with Petey’s unwanted glory.
While I was watching the film, the actual story by Michael Genet (screenplay written by him and Rick Famuyiwa) seemed to be taking forever to coalesce. Once I hit upon the notion that the movie was in many ways really about Dewey, it all slid into place. Peter is flash, and Dewey is the pan. It’s a true story, but it is so aptly told it could have been an engineered fable. Check it out when you can.
MPAA Rating R-pervasive language, some sexual contact
Release date 8/3/07
Time in minutes 118
Director Kasi Lemmons
Studio Focus Features
