Can't You Hear the Wind Howl?: The Life & Music of Robert Johnson

This well-intentioned documentary sets out to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the life of Robert Johnson, the legendary Delta bluesman who's probably best known as the guy who made a deal with the Devil at the crossroads. But director Peter W. Meyer can't seem to decide how best to do the digging. So he films actor Danny Glover delivering a spoken narrative that sounds as if it were written for sixth- and seventh-graders, cuts in wonderful interviews with some of Johnson's still-living contemporaries (Honeyboy Edwards and Robert Lockwood) and younger admirers (including Eric Clapton and Robert Cray), and, most egregiously, has young bluesman Kevin Moore (a/k/a Keb' Mo') star in little docudrama sequences that are meant to show you how things might have been back in Johnson's time. It's not the inherent inaccuracy of the re-enactments that's so troubling but the way they make you feel you're watching an episode of America's Most Wanted. Which is too bad: Robert Johnson would be a great subject for a straight documentary treatment or a feature film, but not both. Screens at the Copley Place Sunday the 14th at 9:15 p.m. and Monday the 15th at 4, 6, and 8 p.m.

-- Matt Ashare

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