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Such a frustrating disappointment

Excellent but underrated film

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

I heard people compare this to Private Parts, let me be the first to say not even close. This story is not trying to be a comedy, yet a heartfelt story of black America during the late 1960's. Peety Green was an innovator and changed the face of radio in America. This movie gives is a great story and combines music to flow all the way through. I have watched it over and over again and have a hard time finding a flaw in the performances of the actors. Martin Sheen gives a great performance and when he breaks down crying, in a particular scene, I can't help feeling my heart being torn out to. It really takes the viewer their and brings us close to what people might have been feeling at the time of tragedy in US history. I watched Private Parts and I sure did not feel the way I felt watching this film.

Don Cheadle's star is probably burning a little bit brighter now since the blockbuster hit of this summer's Iron Man had announced that he will take over Terrence Howard's role as Jim Rhodes given the latter being unable to agree on contractual terms with the studios. While Cheadle might be more familiar to audiences here as one of Ocean's 11 to 13, it was in Hotel Rwanda that made me sit up and take notice, playing a man caught in a genocide, having to protect his family, his friends, and his job all at once.In Talk To Me, Cheadle disappears into the role of real life Washington DC's finest on the radio, Petey Greene, who tells it like it is, without mincing his words, and in doing so, garners a huge following in the city, with this film directed by Kasi Lemmons spanning the 60s to the 80s. Cheadle gives a solid performance as the DJ, an ex-convict whose common man background strikes a chord with his listeners, and this film chronicles his rise to stardom and eventual fade out from the limelight.Sharing the limelight is Chiwetel Ejiofor as partner Dewey Hughes (quite hard to imagine that Ejiofor was once Lola in Kinky Boots), credited for giving Petey his big break into radio outside of the prison walls because of his needing a fresh voice and perspective to be at the helm of his radio station's morning show, which is suffering from plummeting listenership. And as they say, the rest is history. The bulk of the film centers on the friendship between these two personalities, with Hughes at the mid point, in seeing the potential to be milked from Greene to ascend far beyond the airwaves, convincing Greene to allow him to manage his career, therefore bringing about new opportunities from stage to screen.Set against the tumultuous backdrop of that era's US history, the primary theme in the movie though, was on something that you'd probably be able to identify with yourself. It is important to do things that you enjoy doing, rather than be forced to do something that you're unwilling, or unhappy about, despite reaping the rewards gained, be it for fame or money. As the movie goes along and as Greene's fame gets more widespread, there is something in his eye and response that he's not all too comfortable in being put under the spotlight all the time, and Cheadle brings out this subtleness with great excellence. I think some of us from time to time might have experienced how while you're good at something and are comfortable to remain in your own turf, that others who recognize your talent, might want to push you out of your comfort zone. If you think of it positively, it's opportunity to be gained, especially when you swim. If you sink however, then your confidence might be taken a hit, and it depends on your strength in character to be able to bounce back from defeat.Fans of soul music will have plenty to cheer as the soundtrack is nothing short of amazing given that it's set in a radio station for the most part. Wonderful performances all round and having a compelling story to tell, Talk To Me certainly is one of the gems this year that shouldn't be missed.

Petey Green's story is one of thousands that need to be told, not only for African-American history, but for this country in general. The most inspiring thing that got me was during the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King, when he went on the air and calmed folks down. For those who do not remember that time, it was one of the scariest times in the internal USA history. The movie made it seem like he put his personal feelings aside, which were no doubt tumultuous, and tried to bring the city to peace. Forget the fact that he made mistakes in life, and look towards what his heart was saying through his commentary, the same heartfelt things no doubt shared by many Americans. This is a movie that will show you that good can arise from bad situations, that the inner man is more important than the outer man.

When I first watched this movie in the theatre a couple of months back, I was certain I'd seen some of the year's best performances. Watching it again last night on DVD, I'm still certain of that, but equally I'm puzzled as to why this movie didn't do better in theatres? As well as the performances, it has a reasonably well written script, a compelling story based on a real life character, some well known actors and a sound track so good I went online and bought it the next day.Maybe I'm showing my age? It's based in the 1960's around the time of the Civil Rights Movement. I was just a kid but I remember it well, even from my viewpoint across the Atlantic. Audiences seem to cope fine with future fantasies, current times and history prior to the last fifty years, but recent history often seems to sink without trace. Bobby, set in roughly the same time period, also disappeared rapidly from theatre screens. Maybe it's only boring old codgers like me who find this stuff interesting anymore? Ralph "Petey" Greene, well played by Don Cheadle, was quite a character if this movie is to be believed (and there are those who say it shouldn't be believed too much.) An ex-con (he rather liked the term 'miscreant'), after getting out of jail he talked his way into a job as DJ on a Washington DC radio station WOL–AM at just the right time. Ratings were falling and the station was losing touch with its largely black, poor and urban fan base. Greene was blazingly honest, radical and a compulsive communicator. He spoke up on air about social injustice and racism, giving the station a hard time occasionally with the federal authorities who license the airwaves, but rapidly becoming a popular local voice for the African-American community at a time of enormous social upheaval and change. His Program Director Dewey Hughes (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor who was so good last year in Inside Man) apparently took a huge risk putting him on air but went on to become his manager. It has to be said the movie was written by Hughes' son, so may be very biased in his favour.The story takes us through the late 60's, the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, the riots that followed, and into the 70's, complete with the fabulously awful clothes and haircuts of the time (I remember them all too well!) and the great music. Greene was instrumental in calming DC down after Dr King's murder in '68, talking movingly on air to his listeners as the streets burned outside. He introduced James Brown at a memorial concert the next night, and then went on to success on TV. Those at least are facts. I think...But like most interesting people, Petey Greene apparently had his demons. And that's where opinions diverge. According to the movie, drink and drugs caught up with him all too often. He had a tumultuous relationship with his girlfriend Vernell (lively performance by Taraji P Henson) and eventually split from Hughes. Greene's family has maintained that Talk to Me misrepresents him as a drug fuelled womanizer, and certainly I have no idea where the truth lies. What is known is that he died at 53, and over 10,000 mourners turned out for his funeral, still the largest gathering for any non-elected official in DC history, that Dewey Hughes is still alive and successful, living in LA, and apparently no one is talking to anyone else involved in this project.Which is sad. But it is nonetheless a pretty good movie, and it should have done better than it did.