Review of Redemption (2002) by Alekzander K — 03 Feb 2009

"Redemption" is the true story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips L.A. street gang. Played by Jamie Foxx, the story is about Williams' life as a gang leader, his prison term and his passion for writing, his work writing children's novels preaching peace and anti-violence resolutions which earned him Nobel Peace Prize nominations. Tookie loses all forms of appeal and was executed by lethal injection at the Californian San Quentin State Prison in December 2005.

I had a quick look at Tookie's life story on Wikipedia and there is a lot to talk about. The film does him justice and Foxx plays the character well. The interest in the film was how he got round to writing and getting published. This was thanks to reporter Barbara Becnel who visited him at San Quentin for her own book and then she committed herself to helping him get his works published. Lynn Whitfield plays Becnel who has good chemistry with Foxx on screen. I guess this fictitious emotional play between the lead characters was the motor of the film.

Redemption is an average attempt at the gangster-turned-good film but being a TV film, it lacks the flowing camera play and mise en scene. Foxx's presence is the main reason why I watched the film last night. Overall it lacked directing command, punch and 90 minutes is not enought time to trace a bloke's life - so I had the impression the film never really got below the surface of things.

I did keep on thinking to myself that if this film had a bigger budget and was made for the widescreen, then Denzel Washington would have played the part. Hang on, he already has more or less played that part - Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in the Hurricane made in 1999.