PhilPaine.com

I just recent­ly dis­cov­ered the fic­tion of Wal­ter Mosley [see review of “47”].  I haven’t yet read any of his “Easy Rawl­ins” series of mys­ter­ies, but I just saw this film,.made from the first one. Why had­n’t I heard of this film? It’s a superb Chan­dleresque thriller, with fine act­ing in every role. The scenes between Den­zel Wash­ing­ton and Don Chea­dle are par­tic­u­lar­ly fine. The set­ting, Los Ange­les in the 1940’s, when thou­sands of African-Amer­i­cans had recent­ly migrat­ed from the Deep South to work in the air­craft plants, is metic­u­lous­ly recre­at­ed.