Movie Review: Talk To Me by ME

Title: Talk To Me
Starring: Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Taraji Henson, Cedric The Entertainer, Mike Epps
Directed By: Kasi Lemmons
Produced By: Miles Dale, William Horberg, Bruce Toll
Genre: Drama and Biopic
Release Date: July 13th, 2007
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language and some sexual content.
Distributors: Focus Features

Don Cheadle is a phenomenal actor and proves it once again with Talk To Me, the story of Washington D.C. D.J. Petey Greene (Don Cheadle). From his beginnings as a DJ in prison in 1966 to his appearance on The Tonight Show, Talk To Me follows the ups and downs of Petey, Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Vernell Watson (Taraji P. Henson).

As an unknown director, well, unknown to me, Kasi Lemmons directs this gem of a film perfectly with a great blend of humor and gravity. One moment you have our characters reacting to the death of Martin Luther King Jr., which on a side note, really got to me how it was done, and then you get Don Cheadle pulling a Tom Cruise, dancing in his underwear. In a period piece like this it is hard to work celebrity personalities that are well known into a film when they are supposed to be roughly 40 years younger at the time. Talk To Me handles this issue in a number of ways, and does it well. Actual footage, lookalikes and most interestingly a combination of the two. One scene has Johnny Carson out of focus in the background, then the camera pans down to a monitor where they used actual footage from The Tonight Show. I thought it was pretty nifty so I decided to mention it here.

I am really beginning to like Don Cheadle as an actor. Although I prefer him in semi funny roles, he is a great dramatic actor that has a presence that can exude sadness or happiness, sometimes at the same time. He is definitely one of the better actors out there and with a slick radio voice and a colorful wardrobe, he is perfect as Petey Greene. Chiwetel Ejiofor is definitely making his way up the ladder. My first introduction to was as the extremely polite, yet deadly assassin in Serenity where he was just a bad ass. Then came Children Of Men where everyone was on the ball. He does a great job here first as a self righteous ass, then as a friend to Petey, then a rival and back to friend again.

For supporting roles, we have few worth mentioning. Taraji Henson is spunky as hell as Greene's girlfriend/wife and provides a lot of, shall we say color to the film. I don't know if they ever got married but she puts up with more crap than most wives that I know. Other cast members worth mention in supporting roles are Cedric The Entertainer (Who needs to stick to smaller roles like this instead of starring in crap like Codename: The Cleaner) as fellow D.J. Nighthawk, Martin Sheen who is funny as the straight laced radio station owner, and Mike Epps, who is way underused as Dewey's brother Milo.

The only thing that makes Talk To Me a little difficult to deal with is the language. This movie is rated R for a reason and there is a ton of bad language. Now this didn't hurt the film in my eyes as they are just "keeping it real", but some viewers may be turned off by it.

Until Petey Greene does a morning show with Adrian Cronauer,
keep reading (yes I know Petey is dead, but I needed a joke).

Mitch E.
mitchemerson@hotmail.com

5 out of 5