Get to know 50 or cry trying

Went to an advance screening of 50's new flick the other night and I've been thinking about it ever since. I left feeling...kinda empty. I don't know how you watch a story like his (crack-dealing Mom murdered at 8 years of age, streets, jail, brutal beef, getting shot up, and then escaping death) without feeling much, but I did.

And the thing was that I really wanted to feel for 50. For a long time now, I have wanted more from him than his bulletproof, detached, defiant, workaholic persona. (I know, I know, like I'm friends with the dude or something. But you all know what I mean.)

I want to know something about who he is--which is why I was so excited to see the movie. But 50 served up the info (his life-long struggle to grieve his mother and come to terms with an absent father), without any of the emotion. And it wasn't his acting either, because his acting was decent. It was just that something was missing from the entire production.

Laura Sinagra at the Village Voice agrees.