'American Violet' punches all the right buttons

Tim Disney's fact-based drama "American Violet" tells a by-the-numbers formula underdog story in which the leading lady is cuter and perkier than anyone else, the villain scowls all the time, and the good guys are mostly white men come to free oppressed, poor blacks from the tyranny of institutionalized racism in Texas.

For a long time, "American Violet" looks as if it might be joining such films as "Mississippi Burning," "Hurricane" and "Glory" - all fact-based dramas that glorify superior whites who save suffering minorities from harm, then prop up their self esteem and give them a purpose.

Two characters prevent this from happening.

First, a frightened black man with a history of mental disorders musters the moxie to stand up against the racist white sheriff who had once threatened his life.

Second, a black attorney working for the ACLU takes over as lead counsel from his white peers during a routine deposition where he sets a careful trap to flush out the sheriff's racist beliefs.

Both these scenes are the most heroic, memorable moments in an honorable but otherwise unsurprising bio-drama.

"American Violet" begins in 2000 when a raid engineered by Sheriff Calvin Beckett (a thoroughly hateable Michael O'Keefe, emanating waves of arrogance and superiority) sweeps up the black population of an apartment complex in Melody, Texas, on charges of dealing drugs.

Among those arrested: 24-year-old mother of four Dee Roberts (a luminous Nicole Beharie).

When we first meet Dee, she's depicted as a perfect mom, helping her daughters with clothes and diapers, and getting along fine with her mom and neighbor, Alma (the great Alfre Woodard).

Later, we discover that Dee has a minor rap sheet and her children are the product of three fathers, two in jail, one (Xzibit) who's hooked up with a child abuser girlfriend.

The cops say they've got an eyewitness who saw Dee sell drugs. The sheriff offers her a deal. Plead guilty and she'll get a suspended sentence. Take it or go to jail for years.

Angered by the false accusations, Dee refuses. She stays locked up, away from her children and mom.

Then the cavalry arrives in Melody. Two attorneys from the ACLU, David Cohen (Tim Blake Nelson) and Byron White (Malcolm Barrett), realize that a Jewish/black team of Yankee lawyers hasn't got a prayer in Texas. They secure the assistance of local attorney Sam Conroy (a sagely Will Patton) whose belief in equality trumps his fear of local retaliation for helping outsiders.

No surprise, they discover that the county receives federal funds based on its number of drug convictions. That explains the push for plea bargains with poor, powerless blacks offered suspended sentences. Conviction rates go up, but not the costs of incarceration. (Ninety percent of American convictions, we're told, come from plea bargains.)

"American Violet" lurches from one plot point to the next without much subtlety or nuance. Even with a commendable conscience, it's clearly a Hollywoodized product that goes exactly where we expect it will, punches all the right emotional buttons, then wraps everything up neatly with an anger-inducing epilogue that confirms Texas' embedded racism.

At least in that part of the state.

"American Violet"

Rating: 2½ stars

Starring: Nicole Beharie, Alfre Woodard, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton, Michael O'Keefe, Charles Dutton, Xzibit

Directed by: Tim Disney

Other: A Samuel Goldwyn Films release. Rated PG-13 for drug references, language and violence. 103 minutes.