During the mid to late 1960s in Washington, there was a strong framework of different music. It is the music of the vibrant spirit and the explosive social consciousness. It was the place and time for Ralph Waldo 'Betty' Green Junior who managed to express everything inside him through music.
Kasi Lemmons' radio drama of flamboyance, fury and finesse cranks the funk on a sister station to "Talk Radio" and "Good Morning Vietnam," powered by two performances of impeccable clarity and cut from Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
The characters are brought to vivid life with remarkably compelling performances by two of the screen's most versatile actors: Don Cheadle as the freewheeling Greene; and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Hughes, the aggressively ambitious executive.
Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor make a terrific duo, first as enemies, then as colleagues and finally as partners %u2013 until the partnership self destructs.
Although the director succumbs to the genreâ(TM)s temptation to wrap up a messy life with a neat, platitudinous resolution, she lets her cast give Greene and his era its due.
In its wrenching shift from farce to tragedy, and its evocation of the bridge offered by friendship, Talk to Me tells it, and keeps on tellin' it, much as 'Petey' Greene would have.
