Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Love the Hard Way." Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna star in this drama about a thief who falls for a curious, beautiful young woman. As their intimacy grows, a slick cop (Pam Greer) is closing in.
This drama chronicles the complex and unexpected friendship of two men brought together on a road crew during one hot, divisive summer. Darryl, a black man who has endured a ten year struggle of chronic racism, is on the verge of a promotion. But when Johnson, an angry young Asian man, is assigned to his crew for the summer, the rough edges of Darryl's silent struggle are laid bare as he must confront the toll his survival tactics have taken. Due to a traumatic childhood loss, Johnson has withdrawn from the world. Refusing to speak, he tests the limits of his own mortality in a dangerous game played on the train tracks in the dark. Ultimately, however, the two men unite to overcome a mix of explosive rage and unspeakable grief. Johnson slowly learns the clever techniques of fixing and mending road signs, a poetic visual for the minding and repairing of the soul.