Something about Baltimore inspires a devotion in its natives that even New York and San Francisco can’t rival. Director Sheldon Candis, raised in the city, spins a tale of urban grit that’s belied by the loving way he photographs his town. Even the boarded-up row houses look romantic.
It’s a coming-of-age story in which gentle 11-year-old Woody (Michael Rainey Jr.) gets acquainted with harsh adult reality through his adored Uncle Vincent (rapper Common). The boy tags along with this flawed father figure through a menacing day and a violent, hopeless night, as Vincent tries to close a drug deal that will give him the money to open a restaurant and go straight.
Candis gets some wonderful performances from his impressive cast: Danny Glover as a henchman-turned-exurban gentleman, Charles S. Dutton as an aging, played-out straggler, Dennis Haysbert lending his regal bearing to the main villain. With one scene, Lonette McKee makes a stock character of a devout grandma both truthful and moving.
The trouble is in the script’s plotting, which becomes increasingly less plausible until credulity snaps completely in the third act. The sweet-faced Rainey, so good at childish curiosity and the desire to please, can’t put over an abrupt transition to street-tough, and Common’s character becomes a mess of contradictions. The best parts of “LUV” are the least overtly dramatic, like Uncle Vincent skipping stones with Woody and telling him, with deep sincerity, “Baltimore’s a beautiful city, man.”