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‘Rob Peace’ Review: Chiwetel Ejiofor Finds Nuance in the Story of a Gifted Student Who Sells Drugs to His Classmates
Chiwetel Ejiofor's second feature, 'Rob Peace,' is a step up from 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,' but still stops short of greatness.
Based on a biography by Jeff Hobbs, “ Rob Peace ” follows a gifted young Black student from his childhood all the way through Yale, as he deals with economic downturn and trying to free his wrongfully convicted father. As soon as “Rob Peace” threatens to become a biopic of a breakthrough scientist, it reverts to the confines of stereotypical Black stories within the mainstream Hollywood imagination — the cinema of poverty, drugs and absent fathers — a whiplash that makes a fine thematic point. As much as Rob might speak of using his skills for community — for instance, mapping a biological immune response onto his crumbling neighborhood and kickstarting redevelopment plans — the movie’s blinkered focus on its individual subject, rather than his ties to other people, prevents it from feeling like a communal experience.
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