MOVIE REVIEWS : Harris’ ‘Chameleon Street’ an Interesting Try

In the midst of the recent films offering a sweeping variety of takes on the African-American experience, “Chameleon Street” stands alone as both the most ambitious and the most curious. And, like the deceptive animal it takes its title from, this picture looks like different things to different people.

To the film aestheticians who peopled the jury of the 1990 United States Film Festival at Sundance, “Chameleon Street” was enough of an artistic success to win the Grand Prize. To distributors, even those who specialize in the offbeat and the independent, the film was much too risky to take on, leading to the 18-month gap between that award and “Chameleon Street’s” current one-week run at the Nuart. And to most audiences, the film will probably land somewhere in between, an occasionally comic, always idiosyncratic look at what it means to be black in America that is more noteworthy for what it attempts than what it accomplishes, and more interesting to write about and discuss than it is to experience.

Wendell B. Harris Jr., who scripted and directed the film, which is based on a true story, also stars in it as William Douglas Street, a black man whose motto eventually becomes “I think, therefore I scam.” When we first meet Doug Street, however, he is merely a very bored burglar-alarm installer who works for his father in the Detroit area and worries about ways to satisfy his lovely new wife’s materialistic urges.

After one beer too many with his buddies at the Trio Lounge, Street agrees to be part of a plot to extort money from Detroit Tiger slugger Willie Horton and his wife. The idea backfires, largely because one of those erstwhile buddies signs Street’s name to the ransom note and then sends it to the local papers. But the outlandish nature of the bungled attempt makes Street a media hero of sorts and, discovering that he likes the limelight, our man embarks on the series of manipulations and impersonations that make up the body of the film.

In short order, we see Street pretend to be a stringer for Time magazine to get an interview with basketball star Paula McGee, then impersonate a doctor so well that no one even thinks of criticizing him when he performs a most peculiar hysterectomy. From there he goes to Yale, where he convinces almost everyone that he’s a French-speaking graduate student from Martinique. Last stop is back in Detroit, where he becomes a successful volunteer attorney.

Though it would be inaccurate to describe this film as a comedy, the outlandishness of Street’s exploits inevitably lead to a number of oddly humorous moments, like his astonished reaction when one of his patients screams, or the cold, calculated way he verbally demolishes a racist he runs into in a bar. Writer-director-actor Harris has a rich, uninflected voice plus a strong, comforting presence, and he makes it easy to see how Street was able to fool so many people for so long.

More of a challenge, and the heart of what Harris has attempted here, is trying to figure out why he does it, why, in the words of a prison psychiatrist, “You intuit what other people need and become that person.” The first thing you notice about Doug Street, whose fine voice sinks easily into the deepest sarcasm, is that he is far and away the smartest person in his life, too smart, the film seems to be saying, for a black man in America. Very bored, driven to make money but without any obvious outlets for that drive, the only way he can function at a level appropriate for him is to make believe he is someone society doesn’t want him to be: a success.

Yet, though the serious themes that underlie “Chameleon Street” (rated R for language and sex-related dialogue) are valid and intriguing, the film is far from being fully realized. So while one understands why the Sundance jury passed up more accessible films like “To Sleep With Anger” and “Metropolitan” to give this film its top award, that doesn’t make it any easier to sit through. Wendell B. Harris Jr. is definitely a talent to watch, but not necessarily this time around.

‘Chameleon Street’

Wendell B. Harris Jr.: William Douglas Street

Angela Leslie: Gabrielle

Amina Fakir: Tatiana

Distributed by Northern Arts Entertainment Inc. Director Wendell B. Harris Jr. Producer Dan Lawton. Executive producer Helen B. Harris. Screenplay Wendell B. Harris Jr. Cinematographer Daniel S. Noga. Art director Tim Alvaro. Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (language and sex-related dialogue).