When FOX Searchlight Pictures announced last year that they'd be producing a film based on the life of slain rapper Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. Biggie Smalls and the Notorious B.I.G.), few people took notice -- until they followed up the announcement by saying the lead role would be filled by an unknown selected by an open casting call to which anyone could apply. Tens of thousands of rappers, actors, and wannabe superstars tried out for the role of one of the most charismatic figures in the New York hip-hop scene of the 1990s, until the part finally went to a young man named Jamal Woolard. The good news about Notorious, which opens in wide distribution today, is that Woolard is terrific, fully inhabiting the role of Biggie and conveying both the hard street stye of the self-made Big Poppa and the tender, desperate moments of a man who sometimes had no notion of how to take care of himself after having come so far so fast.
Better still, Woolard doesn't have to carry the movie entirely on his own: he's surrounded by a capable supporting cast, especially in the form of Angela Bassett as his mother Voletta, Naturi Naughton as Li'l' Kim (who does a much better job than Li'l' Kim would have), and Sean Ringgold as brutal record mogul Suge Knight. Refreshingly for a big release featuring legions of newcomers, Notorious isn't let down by its cast. Unfortunately, let down it is.
Soul Food writer/director George Tillman Jr. isn't lacking in basic competence behind the camera, but basic is as good as it gets; the direction in Notorious, a story that cries out for flash and style and aggression, is purely pedestrian -- a Notorious B.I.G. video directed by Nora Ephron. Likewise, the script -- which draws on a decent but unspectacular biography by Cheo Hodari Coker, turned into an utterly dull screenplay by Biker Boyz scribe Reggie Rock Blythewood -- is crammed full of cliche even by biopic standards, and the whole production never manages to rise above the standard TV-movie-of-the-week level. It's a shame to waste such a promising cast on a movie that seems as inspiringly written and directed as a mouthwash commercial.
