‘Once in the Life’ Delivers Tragedy With Street Smarts

Laurence Fishburne wastes no time plunging us into the precarious world of his absorbing and edgy “Once in the Life.” In his deft and imaginative adaptation of his 1994 play “Riff Raff,” Fishburne also plays Mike, a slick New York dude who crosses paths with his half-brother Torch (Titus Welliver), whom he barely knows, in a police station, where both have been held briefly.

Mike invites Torch to join him in a drug deal. Mike, who thinks he’s way smarter than he is, prides himself on the acute powers of observation that have earned him the nickname “20/20” because it seems he has eyes in the back of his head. Yet he assumes the clearly high-strung and seedy-looking Torch has a bad cold when, of course, he’s a junkie in dire need of a fix.

And sure enough, Mike foolishly lets himself be drawn into a scam with a flunky (Dominic Chianese Jr.) of a drug kingpin, Manny (Paul Calderon). The scam goes awry when the jittery Torch guns down a couple of the young hotshots the flunky has set up for robbery.

Wounded in his hand, Torch is taken to a hide-out in an abandoned building by Mike, who now waits for his ex-con pal Tony (Eamonn Walker) to arrive to help out the brothers, who managed to escape with the drug haul. What Mike doesn’t know is that Tony, who he believes has gone straight, not only works for Manny but also that the heroin was earmarked for Tony to distribute.

In short order Fishburne has set up a predicament riddled with conflicting emotions. Tony, whose jailhouse poetry and friendship had sustained Mike when they were prison cellmates, is the most intelligent of the three, a man who loathes the life of crime but is resigned to his fateful place in it, supporting his staunch wife (Annabella Sciorra) and their young daughter (Madison Riley).

Mike says he would like to get out, too, but is no thinker, as his strung-out but much brighter brother observes. As Tony ponders how he’s going to spare his friend’s life and yet not cross his boss, Mike and the increasingly sick Torch start forming the fraternal bond they never had.

Themes of friendship, family and loyalty interplay as the situation grows tenser, yet the time these men spend in their secret oasis presents a human face to individuals who might be dismissed as dangerous scum. Not unlike the saloon in “The Iceman Cometh,” the abandoned apartment is an oasis in which these losers can for a moment indulge themselves in the illusion that a better life is possible.

All the while, waiting on the street below are two of Manny’s ruthless enforcers (Gregory Hines and Michael Paul Chan) who are there to ensure Tony satisfies Manny’s demand. The two consider themselves very funny guys--and in a way they are, even though their thuggish skills are no laughing matter.

Fishburne excels in his triple-threat roles as actor, director and adapter of his own play, and his cast glows under his direction. In this handsome, graceful film, Fishburne has found the stuff of tragedy in an urban, streetwise melodrama.

* MPAA rating: R, for pervasive language, strong violence and drug content. Times guidelines: much less emphasis on action than the usual drug trade drama, but too intense and violent for children.

‘Once in the Life’

Laurence Fishburne: 20/20 Mike

Titus Welliver: Torch

Eamonn Walker: Tony

Paul Calderon: Manny

Annabella Sciorra: Maxine

A Lions Gate Films release of a Shooting Gallery presentation in association with Cinema Gypsy Productions. Director Laurence Fishburne. Producers David Bushell, Fishburne, Helen Sugland. Executive producers Larry Meistrich, Stephen Carlis. Screenplay by Fishburne; adapted from his play “Riff Raff.” Cinematographer Richard Turner. Editor Bill Pankow. Music Branford Marsalis. Costumes Darryle Johnson. Production designer Charley Beal. Art director Diann Duthie. Set decorator Paul Cheponis. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Exclusively at the Beverly Connection, La Cienega Boulevard at Beverly Boulevard, (310) 777-FILM (No. 018); the Magic Johnson Theaters, 4020 Marlton Ave. (at Martin Luther King Boulevard), (323) 290-5900; and the Town Center 4, Bristol at Anton, South Coast Plaza, (714) 751-4184 or (714) 777-FILM (No. 086).