Rob Peace

The title character easily earns our rooting interest in Rob Peace, a man in search of a brighter future and a better movie.

Despite some powerfully tragic true-life source material, this compassionate yet conventional biopic struggles to dig beneath the surface and distinguish itself.

Set primarily in the 2000s, the story depicts a familiar urban setting overrun by a cycle of drugs and violence clashing with the prestige of a pristine Ivy League campus.

Such are the worlds inhabited by Rob (Jay Will), a young man whose beautiful mind is burdened by some ugly secrets. From an early age, his mother (Mary J. Blige) saw his potential and intellect and tried to chart a better path.

Rob winds up at Yale, where he excels as a science prodigy under the tutelage of an esteemed professor (Mare Winningham) and also begins a steady relationship with a girlfriend (Camila Cabello).

Yet he remains distracted by his past, and particularly his incarcerated father (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a notorious drug dealer who is charged with murder but maintains his innocence. Their phone calls and visits reflect their loyalty. “He didn’t do it,” Rob insists. “How are we gonna get him out?”

Such a claim requires a financial commitment to prove, so Rob begins selling weed around campus, feeling pressure to expand his efforts as his father’s pleas intensify. As he starts thinking about building wealth for a bright future, are his obligations to his impatient father holding him back?

Rob wants to rise above his circumstances and accompanying expectations, then turn around and help his working-class community. But is he willing to sacrifice everything for a man he’s not sure he can trust?

The sophomore directorial effort from Ejiofor (The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind) is a gritty and evocative period drama — an earnest if well-intentioned exploration of fractured family dynamics and inequities in the justice system.

Ejiofor’s screenplay, adapted from a book by Jeff Hobbs, functions as a heartfelt tribute to Rob that sacrifices a deeper emotional impact when trying to condense its narrative scope.

A convincing portrayal by Will (“Tulsa King”) balances sweet-natured charm with underlying vulnerability, clear-eyed defiance, and moral complexity. However, like Rob, the film wears its idealistic heart on its sleeve, often to its detriment.

Rated R, 119 minutes.