Brian Banks
Good intentions and Hodge’s eloquent, stirring performance help to compensate for Brian Banks' shortcomings as a thinly-sketched inspirational biopic.
Brian Banks ' real - liveliness story is one that risks coming off very badly in a motion-picture show . It deals with extremely sore subject - specifically , a fictive assault accusation - that demand delicate treatment to avoid being problematic in their portrayal . That it also involves an impeccant black teenager being coerced into accepting a plea bargain ( in society to help a broken jurist organisation ) is almost a secondary take . For his motion picture adaptation , then , Tom Shadyac ( take his first non - infotainment since his life - change bicycling accident in 2007 ) takes an peculiarly heavily - handed , but otherwise unwavering approach that grant principal Aldis Hodge to do the heavy lifting . Good intentions and Hodge ’s eloquent , rousing performance avail to correct forBrian camber ' shortcoming as a thinly - chalk out inspirational biopic .
Hodge star inBrian Banksas the film ’s namesake , a Long Beach native and high-pitched shoal football linebacker with the potential to make it all the elbow room to the NFL . Everything change , however , when Brian is incorrectly accuse of sexual assault by another scholar , Kennisha Rice ( Xosha Roquemore ) , in the summertime of 2002 . Despite give birth evidence that proves his innocence , Brian is advised by his lawyer to take a plea peck and assured that it wo n’t affect clink meter . In reality , though , he ends up being sentence to five years in prison house and another five of probation while register as a sexual urge offender . Upon dispatch his time in prison , Brian subsequently get through out to the California Innocence Project and its superintendent , Justin Brooks ( Greg Kinnear ) , in the hopes that they will avail upset the charge against him and give him back his life .
Rather than taking a strictly linear storytelling approach , Shadyac and writer Doug Atchinson ( Akeelah and the Bee ) sagely drop viewers into Brian ’s life while he ’s still on probation and - because of his past - struggling to discover an employer who will in reality hire him . This allows the cinema to frame the events of his past through Brian ’s personal memory and recall , and ( somewhat literally ) let him recount his own level . The job is thatBrian Bankstends to spoonful - feed all these point to viewers through expository voiceover dumps , rather than finding other , more subtle ways of communicating this information visually or perhaps through less expositional dialogue . As a result , the motion-picture show does n’t pop the question much in the way of perceptiveness about the veridical Brian ’s life that could n’t be gained from merely reading his Wikipedia page or even one of the primary sources listed therein .
Information - laden flashbacks are n’t the only affair thatBrian Banksgoes overboard with , either . The film also rely heavily on montages to distil clip and keep thing moving at a fleet pace , but at the expense of a deep exploration of the legal obstruction that Brian had to overcome in his battle to clear his name ( and what they say about the felonious justice system at big ) . Indeed , where something like Ava DuVernay ’s recent Netflix miniseriesWhen They See Uswas a highly polished and thoughtful examen of a real - life miscarriage of justice necessitate young black men in America , Shadyac ’s movie look and feel like a more amateurish rendering of a similar project . luckily , Brian Banksis generally careful about treating issues like racism and sexual assault with the weightiness that they deserve , rather than exploiting them for dramatic force .
That said , it ’s Hodge who savesBrian Banksfrom mediocrity . A longtime standout in film and goggle box , Hodge does a sublime job of becharm Brian ’s determination and desperation with his execution , particularly in the quieter or understood bit where he is n’t saddled with delivering voiceover narration . Thankfully , the movie further avoids rewriting chronicle and score Brian the real Heron of his own story , rather than presenting the well - meaning CIP and Justin ( brought to spirit by a capable Kinnear ) as being his deliverer . Melanie Liburd , by comparability , is sound but partly underused as Karina , a woman who befriends Brian during his journeying despite her own traumatic yesteryear . As for Roquemore as Kennisha : the story neither vilifies nor exclusively humanizes Brian ’s accuser , but or else paints her in a charitable - if , again , under - developed - light , leaning on Roquemore to fill in the crack .
Overall , Brian Banksis a ( mostly ) non - problematic dramatization of the title fictitious character ’s sprightliness story that narrowly quash being a well - import , but middle biopic thanks to its independent cast ( including , an uncredited Oscar - winner whose presence here is complicated for literal - world understanding ) . Banks ' narrative is important when it come to illustrating how wash and class shock criminal allegations - specifically , those that involve intimate assault - and the way they are treated in the eye of the law , but the movie about him is far more effective at wreak greater attention to his experience than thriving as a piece of work of movie house . Still , for those who are concerned in learning more about , well , Brian Banks , this one is worth checking out at some point .
TRAILER
Brian Banksis now playing in U.S. theater . It is 99 minutes long and is rat PG-13 for thematic content and related figure , and for speech .
Aldis Hodge and Greg Kinnear in Brian Banks
Sherri Shepherd and Melanie Liburd in Brian Banks
