'Street Smart': Fabulous Freeman performance in flawed film

Christopher Reeve and Morgan Freeman in Street Smart

You've never seen Morgan Freeman like this.

His breakout role in the 1987 film Street Smart, where he plays one of his only villain roles is a real marvel to behold.

Unfortunately his performance as the temperamental pimp "Fast Black" is wasted in a mediocre movie.

It didn't have to be this way. The premise of the film is fantastic: an ambitious journalist (played by the late Christopher Reeve) manufactures a story about a New York City pimp to impress his editor and it's a huge success.

Meanwhile a real pimp (Freeman) is facing criminal charges for murder. His lawyer realizes that he can pose as the reporter's subject and use the print story for an alibi. The journalist, who's career is riding high following the article's breakthrough success, initially agrees to go along with the ruse, until the pimp's violent lifestyle starts to rub him the wrong way.

That all sounds riveting and it should be but the film makes so many clumsy mistakes that it squanders almost everything it has going for it.

For one thing, the filmmakers pad out the film with a totally absurd and unrealistic subplot of Reeve's character using the article to spark a TV reporting career.

Instead of focusing on the most interesting relationship in the film (that of the writer and the pimp), the movie wastes a lot of time trying to either satirize or earnestly portray the life of a journalist (it's never quite clear).

Reeve was a capable actor, the Superman movies proved that, but in this film he is wooden and implausible. This is more the writing's fault than his, but only he can be blamed for the listless way he plays a scene where he admits to his live-in girlfriend that he's slept with a prostitute.

Freeman, on the other hand, is the reason to see this movie. Age and blockbusters have softened his image and made him something akin to America's favorite cuddly older black man. But in Street Smart he is fierce and frightening. His character has a real authenticity about him. He has both swagger and a short fuse. Instead of using his legendary smooth voice to soothe, Freeman uses it to intimidate.

I will never forget the scene where he terrorizes one of his harem with a pair of scissors, asking her to pick which eye he should gouge out. This is a brilliant performance, one which scored him an Oscar nomination, but the movie lets him down with its conventional film-making and sophomoric "happy" ending.

If there was ever a film that was ripe for a remake it would be this one. It could be done with far more subtlety, wit and intelligence. But considering that the movie did little business, despite raves for Freeman's role, it probably never will be.

Still, it's worth watching to see a totally different side of Freeman's range than we're accustomed to.