The story of the Chicago music label Chess Records gets its second cinematic retelling in two years in “Who Do You Love,” a competent but unexciting lesson in the history of the blues.
In the lead role, a pinched and suspicious Alessandro Nivola seems to think he’s playing henchman No. 2 in a Mafia movie. He’s Leonard Chess, the junkyard owner who, with his brother Phil, started a Chicago blues club for black clients and then discovered artists like Muddy Waters and, later, Chuck Berry, on his way to becoming a record mogul.
As the movie replays familiar scenes about how stars break through and then collapse, the energy level remains at about the level of a well-made cable-TV production. And the no-name casting (among the better-known supporting players is Chi McBride, as Willie Dixon) is in stark contrast to 2008’s “Cadillac Records,” which told the same story with considerably more verve and A-listers including Beyoncé, Mos Def and Jeffrey Wright.
There isn’t anything especially wrong with “Who Do You Love,” but there’s nothing here that cries out to be seen, either.