The Hurricane follows the true-life story of champion boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's wrongful conviction for murder and subsequent jail-cell efforts to clear his own name.
The story itself is very compelling. A crooked cop frames Carter for a series of crimes throughout his childhood culminating in a final frame-up pinning the murder of a number of patrons in a white bar on the black Carter. Once in prison, Carter refocuses his life and pens an inspiring "I didn't do it...and now I've come to a very spiritual place in my life" autobiography. The book makes it into the hands of a black teenager struggling to find his identity while surrounded by his three white teachers -- a whole other story.
The teen and his handlers throw themselves into the crusade to get Carter freed -- and eventually do.
This is the kind of movie where you want to like it more than you do. Like I said, the story is very interesting. The problem, however, lies in the storytelling. The film is just way too slow. I'll tell you what, at times it felt like I was watching paint dry. That's not to take anything away from the actors themselves; there are strong performances all around. The storytelling was simply very ill-paced.
Overall, not a bad rental choice...but have your finger perched on the fast-forward button.
