ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

IT IS twelve years since Biggie Smalls was shot dead in Los Angeles. Notorious makes no attempt to discover who pulled the trigger. Instead, it offers a well-made but traditional biography charting Biggie’s rise from a drug-dealer on the streets of Brooklyn to one of the defining voices of rap music in the 1990s.

It is a decidedly sympathetic portrait that steers clear of controversy but maybe that is only to be expected when one of the film’s producers is Biggie’s mother.

Biggie was born Christopher Wallace and it is his own son Christopher Jordan Wallace who plays him as a youngster. Frequently told he will never amount to anything, Wallace drifts into drug-dealing and delinquency and inevitably winds up in prison.

He also manages to find his own voice as the writer and performer of the kind of freestyle rhymes that will gain enormous popularity. Record producer Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs (Derek Luke) is the producer who first has faith in him and invites him into a recording studio.

Biggie was just 24 when he was killed but the film structures his life as a journey towards maturity in which he struggles to become the man that his mother Violetta (Angela Bassett) has always wanted him to be. Who knows how close to the truth it might be, but it makes for a watchable if predictable film as Biggie embraces all the rewards of fame and fortune before deciding on his true priorities.

A good deal of the film’s appeal comes down to the performance of Jamal Woolard, who captures some of the gentle charm of this mountainous man and provides some blistering recreations of his best studio work and concert performances, including Party & Bullshit. Fans will not be disappointed.

Selected Nationwide release

Director: George Tillman Jr
Cast: Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Jamal Woolard, Anhtony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton
Screenwriter: Reggie Rock Blythewood, Cheo Hodari Coker
Certificate: 15
Running time: 123 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2009

© Allan Hunter, 2009