So much is right about writer-director Tanya Hamilton's feature debut, "Night Catches Us": Terrific acting, great music, a painterly eye for detail, fine period trappings that bring the mid-1970s to life without turning the film into a garish flashback.
Yet her story of former Black Panthers getting on with their lives after the civil-rights movement is predictable and overly simple, an injustice to the characters and environment she's created.
The drama unfolds in an obvious manner as a prodigal Panther (Anthony Mackie) comes home to his blighted Philadelphia neighborhood, has run-ins with cops and old comrades turned adversaries, and reconnects with the woman (Kerry Washington) for whom he once carried a torch.
It's an admirable story, admirably told, but there's nothing fresh or unexpected here. Within minutes of each character's appearance, you know them as well as you're going to, and they play out their parts in Hamilton's story just as you suspect they will.
After skipping town years earlier under suspicion of betraying a fellow Panther, Mackie's noble, weary Marcus returns to Philly for the funeral of his father.
He's an unwelcome sight to most everyone, including former ally DoRight (Jamie Hector), now the head of the local movement; conniving police Detective Gordon (Wendell Pierce); and soda can collector Jimmy (Amari Cheatom), a hotheaded youth who idolizes the Panthers and wants to rekindle their 1960s spirit of violent confrontation.
Marcus renews his friendship with Patricia (Washington), the wife of a slain Panther who's now an attorney and the neighborhood do-gooder, bailing friends and relations out of jail and handling their criminal cases.
Patricia's 9-year-old daughter, Iris (Jamara Griffin), also bonds with Marcus, both as a father figure and as a source of information on her real dad, about whom she's heard little from her mother.
Once all the characters are in place, "Night Catches Us" pretty much is an inevitable series of events: escalating flare-ups between angry blacks and hostile white cops, quarrels between Marcus and his old pals, a revelation or two that are not all that revelatory.
Along with the first-rate performances, the great strength of the film lies in the details — tight Afros, baggy, bulky clothes — which really evoke the time and place. A sharp '70s soundtrack bridged by a funky score from the Roots augments the time travel experience.
In the end, though, the story just doesn't live up to the vibrant backdrop surrounding it.