movie never quite matches Howard's performance

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2006)

Terrance Howard earned a well-deserved Best Actor nomination for his strong performance in "Hustle and Flow," a modern urban fairy tale about a two-bit drug dealer and pimp who dreams of making something better of his life. "D-Jay," a singer/songwriter who long ago gave up his ambition of hitting it big in the music business, barely ekes out a living selling dope and pimping cheap hookers in his rundown Memphis neighborhood. Lately, he's been suffering from what he himself calls a "mid life crisis," as the realization has begun to dawn on him that his life is going nowhere fast. By chance, he runs into a high school acquaintance with some recording equipment who agrees to hook up with him and start cutting some records. But will D-Jay be able to break into an industry that seems closed to all but a select few hardworking and lucky enough to break down the doors?
Although Howard hits all the right notes in his performance, the movie itself is never quite as good as he is in it. As written and directed by Craig Brewer, the film lacks the authenticity and grit that a sturdier, more seasoned hand (a Spike Lee, for instance) might have brought to it. The scenes often have an air of contrivance about them, as if Brewer didn't trust the audience to get the meaning without his spelling it all out for us. The storyline often veers dangerously close to melodrama (as in D-Jay's encounter with a big star hip-hop artist) and the dialogue often has that overly explicit, self-revelatory quality that makes it sound forced, unconvincing and phony. Moreover, with the exception of Howard, the acting is woefully uneven and even downright amateurish at times. One admires what Brewer is trying to do in the film - providing a sort of upbeat antidote to all the downbeat urban black dramas we are always being subjected to these days - but "Hustle and Flow" never manages to convince us of its own authenticity.
Still, the movie is worth checking out for Howard's acting, which is indeed rich, varied and amazingly subtle at times, and for some nice moments of emotion and insight scattered along the way.