Cassidie's Review

Taking a conventional story and giving it a compassionate twist through the naturalistic chemistry between its characters allows Rock-A-Fella’s most recent production, “Paid in Full,” to stand out among previous gangster/crime films. Loosely based on the story of three prominent Harlem drug dealers of the 80’s (AZ, Rich Porter, and Alpo), director Charles Stone III reworks the emotions, actions, and the consequences that these three men experienced, closely following the good boy in the ghetto turned bad story of AZ through the character of Ace (Wood Harris).

The film traces the footsteps of Ace, a well-to-do, somewhat reserved young man of Harlem who spends a lifetime immersed in the glamour of the Crack Epidemic coupled with the pressure exerted on him to become a part of the drug world from his closest friend, Mitch (Mekhi Phifer) who is based on the character of Rich Porter. Despite his lifelong resistance against being a part of this world, Ace loses his strength and takes over his Mitch’s dealing business following Mitch’s arrest.

Ace’s strength can only be weakened at the sight of the classy, wealthy dealer- Lulu. Lulu, a client of the dry-cleaning shop that Ace works at, unintentionally leaves a small bag of cocaine in a pocket of his pants. When attending to Lulu’s pants, Ace discovers the drugs and, like a moral man, returns them to Lulu who lives better than any man Ace has ever encountered. Rewarding Ace for his honesty, Lulu gives the cocaine to Ace- a true test of Ace’s morality. Inevitably, Ace ends up selling the cocaine to a needy client of Mitch’s, realizing the ease at which dealers make such an abundance dirty cash.

Following this realization, Ace enters the corrupt world he has always denied, emb...

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...the shift from an ideal lifestyle to an undesirable lifestyle of paranoia……

Mr. Stone managed to grasp the exact emotions that the character of Ace would feel while being in a community with daily pressures to leave behind the seemingly bad for the falsely good. Just as Mitch pressures Ace to give up his minimum wage job at the dry-cleaners, Malakai of “Save The Last Dance”(2001) pressures his best friend, Derek, to be a part of his gang. These scenarios are shockingly realistic, and “Paid in Full” gives a clear depiction of the difficulty involved in ignoring something that is flashily flaunted on a daily basis throughout an impoverished community. As an audience member, the character’s pain and insecurity involved in turning down the people who are most influential to that individual creates a sense of anxiety in the audience that is palpable.