Butler's Cinema Scene

Lakeith Stansfield

“CROWN HEIGHTS” My rating: C+ 

94 minutes | MPAA rating: R

The real-life miscarriage of justice depicted in Matt Ruskin’s “Crown Heights” is both outrageous and all too common.

In 1980 Colin Warner, a native of Trinidad living in Brooklyn, was implicated in the shooting death of another young man. A witness claimed that Warner drove the killer’s getaway car; the victim’s brother said Warner’s mug shot (Warner had a history of car theft) looked like one of the shooters.

Warner had never met any of these individuals and was at a loss to explain his predicament. Even the detectives who arrested him  suspected that he probably didn’t do it…but they needed to clear the case and move on.

As a result, Colin Warner spent nearly two decades in prison before an extraordinary effort on the part of one of his friends led to his release.

“Crown Heights” is basically a legal procedural that takes a docudrama approach. This is both its strength and its weakness.

Writer/director Ruskin appears to hew closely to the facts of the case. But he also refuses to speculate on his characters’ inner lives…with the result that the film, despite its incendiary nature, feels emotionally neutral.

It’s easy enough to become furious about what happened to Colin Warner; but as drama “Crown Heights” leaves us wanting.

Nnamdi Asomugha

This despite a solid lead performance  from Lakeith Stansfield as Warner and former NFL pro Nnamdi Asomugha as his never-say-die friend Carl.

The screenplay is basically two trains on parallel rails. In stir we see the hardships Warner endures, including nearly two years in solitary for his angry outbursts (who can blame him?). But he strikes up a pen pal relationship with a woman (Natalie Paul) from his neighborhood; eventually they have a prison wedding. He studies law, becoming an accomplished jailhouse lawyer.

Meanwhile time marches on, presidents come and go, wars start and end.

Out in the free world Carl marches all over NYC interviewing witnesses, cajoling cops and attorneys, raising money for Colin’s defense and throwing his own marriage into jeopardy (the Missus wonders if he cares half as much about her as about his convict buddy).

It’s an uphill struggle; the system really doesn’t care.

“Crown Heights” gives us an ultimately happy ending.  But how many more Colin Warners are wasting away behind bars, waiting for an exoneration that may never come?

| Robert W. Butler