CNS Movie Review: Hustle & Flow

Hustle & Flow

By David DiCerto
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- How's this for a feel-good story? Poor dude from the mean streets of Memphis overcomes obstacles to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a rap artist.

But hold on, you should know that the underdog protagonist here is a pimp who bankrolls his dream-chasing by dealing drugs and selling women out of his battered car.

In first-time writer-director Craig Brewer's well-acted but problematic "Hustle & Flow" (Paramount Classics), Terrence Howard stars as DJay, a philosophizing, small-time street hustler with big-time aspirations.

As he approaches the age of his father's premature death, DJay begins to take inventory of his dead-end existence.

He shares a rundown house with his "ladies": pregnant soul mate Shug (Taraji P. Henson), unsupportive stripper Lexus (Paula Jai Parker) and spitfire Nola (Taryn Manning), who is the makeshift family's main source of income.

The impending visit of homegrown rap star Skinny Black (played by real-life rapper Ludacris) and a serendipitous encounter with an old schoolmate, Key (Anthony Anderson), who happens to be a sound engineer, sparks an idea. DJay is confident that if he can channel his frustrations and, with Key's help, cut a demo and get it to Skinny, he can leave pimping behind. But he must first use those hustling skills to raise enough money to turn his backroom into a recording studio.

Everyone pitches in: white church musician Shelby (DJ Qualls) provides the beats for the tracks; Shug -- who discovers she can sing -- provides the sultry background pipes; and Nola provides the "financing." The result is the aptly titled ditty "Hard to be a Pimp," one of several songs with lyrics degrading to women.

Despite its seamy milieu and cliche-tinged script (hood trying to go straight, hooker with a heart of gold), the story is engaging. Delivering a strong performance, Howard is definitely a star on the rise, his citron eyes registering flashes of both intensity and vulnerability, softening DJay's unsavory edges with a touch of humanity.

Clearly, DJay is a man with limited options for bettering his life, but there is something highly troubling about being asked to root for a guy who treats women like chattel. (In one scene, he callously throws Lexus and her infant child out onto the street).

"Hustle & Flow" is billed as a redemption tale. And while it certainly has redemptive elements, it is somewhat of a hustle to suggest that it is anything but a film about a guy who would rather use other people to satisfy his uphill quest for self-fulfillment than earn an honest living. Classic movies, of course, are littered with examples of characters who won our sympathies while employed in equally disreputable situations. Rocky Balboa -- the ultimate underdog -- worked as a leg-breaker for a mobster.

However, Brewer seem to ignore the fact that in trying to reclaim his own dignity, DJay doesn't seem to care if he robs others of theirs, as when he barters Nola in exchange for an expensive microphone. Contrast DJay with Russell Crowe's Jim Braddock in "Cinderella Man," who faced far greater hardships -- a little thing called the Great Depression -- in struggling to survive poverty but managed to maintain his sense of decency.

Still, at least Brewer shows DJay's flaws and never glamorizes his lifestyle.

The film contains an uncritical portrayal of prostitution, extended partial nudity, some violence, drug content, much raw sexual language and profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.

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DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

END

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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