Review: Well-intentioned ‘Rob Peace’ flattens out the complexity of a true story of race and fate

As someone who has always been drawn to inspiring tales of resilience and determination, I found “Rob Peace” to be a captivating, yet slightly flawed, portrayal of a remarkable life. Growing up in a similar neighborhood to East Orange, N.J., I can relate to the struggles and triumphs that this story so vividly depicts.

Statistics about the social mobility of Black lives don’t always do justice to what it looks like up close for one person. That’s where movies come in handy as vessels of understanding and, in “Rob Peace,” a dramatization about a real-life Yale student whose trajectory defies easy categorization, writer-director Chiwetel Ejiofor (following up his impressive 2019 directing debut, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”) proves more earnest than skillful at bringing heartfelt complexity to another tale of whiz-kid promise and resourcefulness.

Raised in a struggling part of East Orange, N.J., I, Rob (Jelani Dacres), was a young prodigy with a knack for numbers at the tender age of 7. My resilient, hardworking single mom, Jackie (portrayed powerfully by Mary J. Blige), who juggles multiple jobs, saw my potential and yearned to cultivate it in private education and college. However, my encounters with my compassionate yet drug-dealing father, Skeet (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), provided me with an unfiltered glimpse into the harsh realities of life in an underprivileged neighborhood. He imparted wisdom: “Look out for others, and they’ll look out for you.”

The two systems of personal advancement – a mother’s aspiration for liberation and a father’s conviction about progressing with help along the way – are challenged when Skeet is imprisoned for murder while Peace is only building his academic reputation. Despite excelling in a nurturing prep school and securing admission to Yale with a scholarship, Peace (portrayed by Jay Will in adolescence) continues to strive for his father’s release, maintaining his belief in his innocence. This sense of responsibility, combined with a daring ambition, guides this intelligent, socially adept young adult along a path that, although highlighting him as a determined prodigy, ultimately jeopardizes the future he has worked hard to create.

As a movie enthusiast, I, Chiwetel Ejiofor, found the complexities within my character, Rob Peace, from Jeff Hobbs’ 2014 book “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace,” to be truly cinematic. However, capturing Peace’s intriguing paradoxes proved challenging, as it sometimes collided with the narrative I was also crafting about two Americas. This juxtaposition resulted in a structure where characters such as classmates, girlfriends (like Camila Cabello), professors (Mare Winningham), and even parents, felt more like devices to echo themes rather than fully-realized individuals. For instance, dialogues may read like this: “You deserve your chance at happiness.” Or: “You have a unique ability to bring people together.”

As a movie enthusiast, I find Will’s magnetism akin to Peace itself. His captivating persona and weight often compensate for Chiwetel Ejiofor’s excessive close-ups. Ksenia Sereda’s cinematography, though generally uncluttered, seems mysteriously fixated on orange and red tones. Will breathes life into Peace with a fluid, sly charisma, seamlessly transitioning between humor, insight, and an effortless I-fit-right-here self-assuredness. However, he also skillfully reveals the weight of his performance in a poignant, tense exchange where he subtly conveys his burden by saying to a skeptic, “I am exactly who you think I am.” That one moment of understated pain is truly powerful.

The actor’s performance is so convincing in challenging our perceptions of an underprivileged hero that it suggests a miniseries could have delved deeper into his story, exploring the events and circumstances that made Peace’s interpretation of destiny both thrilling and heartbreaking. The film about him is decent at portraying its scope and capturing its intricacies, but like the real-life character, it leaves you yearning for a more extensive exploration.

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2024-08-18 23:31