Jeffrey Wright, Emmy winner and frequent supporting player, takes a leading turn in HBO’s O.G., a movie filmed inside Indiana’s maximum security Pendleton Correctional Facility. Director Madeleine Sackler strove for realness while depicting life behind bars and, in doing so, she hired a cast largely made up of actual inmates. The end result, however, doesn’t deliver on the film’s promise of authenticity, even though Wright and his co-star, Theothus Carter — who’s currently incarcerated for multiple felony convictions (including attempted murder and robbery) — manage to center the film with solid performances.
Wright plays a former prison gang leader, Louis, who’s weeks away from ending a 24-year sentence. He’s gotta keep himself clean until release, which initially seems doable, given that he’s not involved in the gangster life these days. However, a member of the next generation, Beecher (Carter), arrives in Pendleton and must quickly confront threats from current gang leadership. Will Louis sacrifice his clean nose to help out Beecher or keep his head down and worry only about his own future beyond prison gates? That’s quite a plight and rife with dramatic potential, given that Louis sees himself in the younger man, who’s kicking off a comparably long sentence.
Sadly, the film doesn’t explore these avenues in a truly compelling way. We see Wright veering between his stoic prison persona and (privately) crippling guilt at various points in the film. The authenticity communicated by Carter and his fellow inmates would also ideally land on point, yet the script never encourages the audience to invest in these men’s journeys. And that’s a shame, given that Wright infuses his character with jaded weariness as he prepares to reenter society. In the process, questions arise about whether prison truly rehabilitates inmates or prepares them in any way for life on the outside. Louis must also visit with those whom he’s caused irreparable harm while putting the final touches on parole. He’s wracked with remorse to a believable degree, and Wright’s presence here is worthy of a more intricately layered story.
The main issue is this: As a prison drama, O.G. ultimately falters when it comes to delivering the necessary, actual drama. Although Wright and Carter’s dynamic and chemistry crackle with potential, the film struggles to place them in climactic scenes that carry any true risk or heft to their characters. Perhaps that omission (no graphic violence, etc.) is due to restraints placed upon what inmate-actors are actually permitted to do. Not to hypothesize too much, but I found myself wondering if these men were intentionally not placed into situations where they could get carried away (purposefully or not) and cause genuine harm to one another. This would result in an odd paradox because the project hired inmates to foster a sense of realism. That’s rough.
I could be wrong with that assumption. It’s difficult to put a finger on the precise reason why O.G. doesn’t fire on more cylinders. The talent is certainly there, but perhaps the film simply attempted to tackle too many big issues in a runtime of under two hours. There’s really not enough space to adequately handle not only Louis struggling with the continued fallout what he’s done while anticipating a fruitless transition back into society, as the film tries to flesh out the budding relationship between himself and Beecher, in addition to straddling constraints presented by filming within a correctional facility. It’s a lot.
O.G. presents no answers, only questions, which would be adequate if the film was asking new questions that hadn’t been posed already in other prison dramas. We’ll also never know if this project would have better been served in the miniseries format, to witness how these two main characters were affected on a longer-term basis by their time together. The movie isn’t based on any individual’s true story, so any followup would be genuine fiction, which isn’t against the rules. Yet this movie doesn’t move beyond presenting the already established notion that (for the most part) the corrections system doesn’t serve as a future deterrent in terms of preparing inmates for success once they’ve served their time. There’s no unique angle here beyond that reality, but at least Jeffrey Wright’s leading-man talents have been showcased for future projects.
HBO’s ‘O.G.’ debuts on Saturday, February 23 at 10:00 p.m. EST.
