Once in the Life

Pretty in many ways. Good acting, good cinematography, interesting mood, many small things, sentimental things. This movie has a style and if you enjoy sitting back and enjoying something pretty this is for you. All these little things add up to make it a good movie. Too bad it seems to be the only movie directed by Laurence Fishburne.

This is really a great unknown movie.Perfect dialogue without the typical clichés.This movie relied on the actor's talent and it was pulled off.It even had a little bit a comedy in it,but it wasn't overdone.Once in the Life is what a crime drama is supposed to be,not the typical special affects garbage with sex thrown in.I especially loved the interracial aspects of it all.

Now onto the actors themselves. Laurence Fishburne was superb at playing a career petty criminal.It's a shame that he's only allowed to show his talent in his own movie. Titus Welliver was fabulous as Fishburne's junky half-brother. Eamonn Walker added flavor to the already perfectly spiced film. Paul Calderon was perfect as a grease monkey/drug lord.I loved his acting since "King of New York". But the best acting in this film came from Gregory Hines and Michael Paul Chan,who were paired perfectly as two of Calderon's henchmen.

Once in the Life is for sure a keeper. ****1/2* out of *****.

I caught this movie on IFC and I enjoyed it, although I felt like the editing job was a little rough, though it may have been deliberate. I had a little bit of a hard time figuring out what was going on at first because they seemed to be going for a little bit of a Pulp Fiction-style non-linear plot presentation. It seemed a little forced, though. I certainly think that the movie is worth watching, but I think it could have used a little cleaning up. Some scenes just don't seem to make sense after others.

I'm surprised to see the rating here as low as it is. It's not outstanding, but it doesn't have any really serious problems. I gave it a 7/10. The movie did show at least that Laurence Fishburne can act when he wants to. They must have just told him not to in the Matrix movies.

ONCE IN THE LIFE (2000) **1/2 Laurence Fishburne, Titus Welliver, Eamonn Walker, Annabella Sciorra, Paul Calderon, Gregory Hines, Michael Paul Chan, Dominic Chianese, Jr., Tiger Chen, Sue Costello, Jim Breuer. Fishburne makes his big-screen directorial debut adapting his play 'Riff Raff' about two half-brother, petty criminal siblings (Welliver is memorable as the ne'er do well junkie with a short fuse) who meet unlikely after many years and after botching an improvised crime together sit and wait things out in a crack house recalling their pasts with Fishburne's former cell mate Walker who is equally in deep water.

Great acting and claustrophobic settings only mar in this rather stagy and staid film in an otherwise engaging character study of losers.

"Once in the life" is a very good movie. However it's not good for everybody, due to the extensive use of vulgar language and the violence of some of the situations. The movie manages to represent in an anecdotic, believable way the "life" in NYC neighborhoods where drug problems are important. This depiction is in turn used as the decor for a most thoughtful and suspenseful drama backed up by powerful dialogs (however I had a hard time understanding some of them because english is not my mother tongue. On video it's OK). There is a little overplay sometimes, but I think it fits quite well to the general orientation Fishburne gave to the movie, which gives matter for reflexion more than just being a good style exercise, notably in the time/action management. The characters, even though not simple, are easy to relate to and actors do a fine job at impersonating them. By the way I much enjoyed the soundtrack (B. Marsalis). If you're not too prude, you should enjoy seeing that movie once, twice, three times. I rated the movie 9/10.