Jason's Lyric

Set in the crumbling, prideful world of Houston's Fifth Ward, Jason's Lyric is the story of two brothers, the responsible, upstanding Jason (Payne), and the in-jail-one-day, out-the-next Joshua (Woodbine). Both are scarred by a tragic, inescapable childhood tragedy: the shooting death of their shell-shocked, abusive father Maddog (Whitaker) by young Jason. For Jason, the past 20 years have merged into one long crescendo of denial, culminating in torturous nightmares and a firm, almost manic, belief in the redeeming powers of hard work. For Joshua, the past has led only to acts of violence, petty drug crimes, and time served. By day, Jason works in a TV repair shop; at night, he cares for -- and lives with -- his upright, God-fearing mother (Douglas). As fate would have it, he stumbles across the future one day in the form of Lyric (Pinkett), a beautiful, withdrawn young woman who sets his heart afire and who acts as a catalyst for change in the young man's life. Pursuing her over the course of the summer, the couple eventually manage to let go of their hard-won emotional defenses and take a stab at a better life, planning to grab a Greyhound and hit the road. Joshua, well on his way to following in his father's 125-proof footsteps, has other plans though. On the face of it, McHenry's film plays like an amalgam of several other recent films, from John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood and Poetic Justice, to the Hughes brothers' Menace II Society. There's a lyrical sweetness here, though, that is missing from those other films. At times it borders on treacle (scenes of the young lovers romping in a sylvan bayou glade are inches away from cloying), but elsewhere it rings true with the hope born of desperate situations. Payne and Pinkett (who was equally wonderful in Menace II Society) both have powerful screen presences, and their scenes together seem like something out of Romeo and Juliet. Naughty By Nature's Treach -- as Lyric's jealous, street-corrupted brother -- is also excellent, but it's Woodbine as Joshua who makes the film. Every motion he makes is infused with pain and bitter hopelessness, like a puppet with frayed, rotting strings. McHenry also uses the Fifth Ward to good effect, emphasizing the stark battlefield that is inner-city Houston. An above-average film with a slightly different take on a familiar theme, Jason's Lyric falls just short of the mark, ending as it does on a predictable note that feels just a bit off.