Joyce Glasser reviews Rob Peace (September 6, 2024) Cert 15, 120 mins.
This biographical film written and directed by the actor Chiwetel Ejiofor who also co-stars, establishes its real-life credentials from the start with the proper noun of the title. And it does so defiantly as few of us have ever heard of the eponymous protagonist. Ejiofor believes we should all know about Rob Peace and after seeing his film, few could argue.
As for the credentials, the film it based on the book, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, written by Peace’s Yale roommate Jeff Hobbs, while an opening caption puts us in East Orange, New Jersey 1987. A voiceover from Rob (Jay Will) tells us of his childhood passion for science and mathematics. This is also true. In nursery school the teachers used to call him “the professor.”
In 1987 when Rob was seven, he was living with his mother Jackie (Mary J. Blige) and grandparents, when his father, Robert Sr. (Ejiofor) was jailed for the murder of two girls. The day of the murder is dramatised for its impact on young Rob, who visited his father in prison until he became old enough to work on proving his father’s innocence.
Meanwhile Jackie works three jobs at school and hospital cafeterias to send Rob to the prestigious Saint Benedict’s Preparatory School where he flourishes. Rob graduates at the top of his class academically and athletically while achieving some success in getting his father out of prison on appeal.
But throughout the film, Rob’s accomplishments conflict with his responsibility for his father, whom he believes is a victim of injustice. Rob is not only studying for his college entrance exams but teaching himself law and dealing with lawyers.
The uplifting scene where Jackie screams out that Rob has been admitted to Yale is juxtaposed with a phone call from Robert Sr., complaining that his appeal failed and he’s going back to prison. As his mother, referring to Yale, is joyously shouting, ‘you did it,’ Rob reassures his father: ‘we did it once, we’ll do it again. We’ll appeal.’
An impressed benefactor sponsors Rob at Yale, where he takes on menial jobs, washing dishes, to earn money for his father’s defence team. But when that money is not enough, he gets involved with selling marijuana to students, a risky but lucrative experience that he reconsiders a few years later with tragic results.
While saving $100,000 from drug sales, Rob flourishes in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and so impresses his teacher that he secures a position in a cancer and infectious disease laboratory associated with the Yale Medical School.
The film glosses over the racism and class prejudice dramatising only one incident when Rob offends a more advanced white, entitled student with his superior knowledge. But the viewer can imagine the pressure on a Black student with something to prove in an Ivy League university trying to hide the fact that his father is a convicted murderer.
When Rob graduates with honours from Yale, the world should be his oyster, but instead, he becomes a popular teacher at Saint Benedict’s, until his mentor there (Edwin Leahy) tells him it’s time to fly – and go to graduate school. Rob’s girlfriend (Camila Cabello) and mother are continually urging him to live his own life.
But in addition to his commitment to his father, Rob has a fervent attachment to his community and, bolstered by his business skills building a drug ring, seizes on an initiative where he can satisfy his desire to fix up the neighbourhood while making money reselling the undervalued homes. His friends and classmates become shareholders. But when the market crashes, Rob must act to cover their losses.
While today’s newspapers are full of stories about parents taking their children out of school for a cheap holiday, kids skipping school and dropping out for dead-end jobs, it’s sobering to learn about a gifted boy who does his homework, loves school, excels in maths and science but still ends up a statistic of gang warfare.
The nature of Pearce’s story demands a cradle-to-grave biopic, but the challenges are apparent in the film. Although there is suspense built into the plot, scenes feel efficiently dramatised to connect the dots, without the emotional depth, moments of reflection and characterisation of the supporting cast that bring a film alive.
That said, the film holds our attention throughout. And there is emotional depth in the heartbreaking scenes between Will and Ejiofor – both excellent. We watch their interaction with a feeling of helpless anger as Robert Sr. makes everything about himself, dragging down the son he should be supporting like a chain around his neck. There are few more gut-wrenching scenes this year then when, on his death bed, the father denies his devoted son the truth about the contentious murder.
If Ejiofor cannot overcome all the handicaps of a full-life biopic, Rob Peace is still a devastating story of race, class and failed potential that everyone should see. It’s not just one true story. The film asks big questions about whether it’s really possible for anyone to reinvent their identities and take charge of their destiny.
