JUSTICE NOT SERVED
‘Crown Heights’ tells true story of man’s wrongful conviction, despair, hope
Based on a true story, “Crown Heights” resembles any number of “wrong man” dramas, such as Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 classic “The Wrong Man,” with Henry Fonda, and going as far back as Howard Hawks' “The Criminal Code” (1931), as well as any number of “Law & Order” TV episodes.
But what sets “Crown Heights” apart is a lyrical touch by writer-director Matt Ruskin, who produced the 2016 sleeper “The Infiltrator” and whose screenplay deftly combines fact and fiction, and an award worthy turn by Lakeith Stanfield (“Atlanta,” “Straight Outta Compton”) in the lead role.
The film tells the story of Colin Warner, a young man from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, who is wrongfully charged and convicted of a murder on the mean streets of New York City in 1980. A corrupt cop (veteran Zach Grenier), a heartless DA (Josh Pais) and a jaded judge are all it takes, and Colin is in high-security lockup at the Dannemora prison in New York state.
Incarcerated at age 18 with a 15-years-to-life sentence, Colin gets in trouble for fighting with a sadistic prison guard, is handed two years in solitary and refuses to admit guilt for the crime, killing his chance at parole.
Colin is an immigrant from Trinidad, where he was raised as a child by his beloved grandmother. He lived with his unmarried mother, Briana (Marsha Stephanie Blake), as an adolescent in Brooklyn, and the film makes it clear that while he was training as a mechanic at school, where he banters with fellow West Indian classmates about Marcus Garvey, Colin was also boosting cars on the side, in one case none-too-intelligently as the car's angry black owner catches up with him, and the car ends up hooked on a fire hydrant. “Crown Heights” is admittedly overwhelmed by deep despair much of the time.
But the rest of the time there is uplift and hope. Colin's neighbor and childhood flirtation Antoinette (Natalie Paul) comes to visit him in prison. They fall in love, marry and have a child while Colin is still behind bars. Colin gets his GED. Colin's neighbor, childhood friend and “bredren” Carl “KC” King (Nnamdi Asomugha) makes getting his friend freed his life's work, so much so KC's own wife leaves him, taking their two daughters with her. After heartbreaking setbacks, KC becomes a process server, working for a sympathetic attorney (Bill Camp). Can Colin, who has been in prison for 20 years at this point, dare to hope again?
Yes, “Crown Heights” is another case of a white person telling an African-American story. But the acting is first-rate across the board, and no one else stepped up to tell the story of Colin Warner, whom we see in the end credits and who saw the film for the first time in January at the Sundance Film Festival. (“Crown Heights” contains nudity, sexually suggestive language and violence.)