Talk to Me

In the late '60s and early '70s, an unlikely star named Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) emerged from the shadows of prison life to become one of Washington, D.C.'s most potent broadcasting personalities, a guy who came from the streets and just liked to "tell it like it is." While he was incarcerated, he became the voice of the pen. While visiting the prison, radio station exec Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor) noticed his talent and told him to look him up if he ever got out. Of course Hughes never thought he would get out; but once he did, Petey took him up on his offer. Through a series of seemingly disastrous early on-air shows in which the station manager (Martin Sheen) tries to fire him, somehow this ex-con became the shit of D.C. The film, directed by Kasi Lemmons, doesn't attempt to be a straight-on biopic of Greene, but rather focuses on the key years of his success and downfall, and most importantly on the tenuous relationship between him and his manager Hughes, who saw in Petey a way to realize his own ambitions. In fact, one of the most effective sequences is when Hughes gets Petey a disastrous stand-up gig on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, something he wanted more than Petey apparently. Set against turbulent times, the movie shifts skillfully from broad comedy to sober drama, particularly in a scene set on the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Cheadle, who has never been this uninhibited on-screen before, soars into the highest rank of film actors as Greene. He is flat-out great, a towering performance. Rising star Ejiofor and Taraji P. Henson (Hustle & Flow) as Petey's take-no-prisoners girlfriend are magnificent as well. The unforgettable Talk to Me will have you talking long after you leave the theater. It is a vibrant, funny, moving, highly entertaining, and richly rewarding experience.