It’s never a good thing when the postscript to a film based on a true story is more interesting than the actual movie itself. This is unfortunately the case with Patrick Gilles’ “I’m Charlie Walker,” a biopic about an enterprising Black trucker who won a lucrative contract to help clean up the largest oil spill in San Francisco Bay history in 1971 when two Standard Oil tankers collided. As interview footage of the real Charlie Walker plays with text cards just before the credits roll, it’s clear that this film would have been better as a documentary.
“I’m Charlie Walker” has all the makings of an entertaining period piece: a little-known true story, an environmental disaster, a colorful setting and a fascinating subject in Charlie, played by the compelling actor Mike Colter (“Luke Cage”).
Writer/director Gilles does use some techniques from documentary filmmaking, including a voice-over narration that opens the film, provided by the character of Charlie’s wife, Ann (Safiya Fredericks). But what should be a device to help us understand Ann’s inner thoughts on the matter is instead an exceedingly unengaging way to provide the context of Charlie’s predicament as a Black trucker in San Francisco in the early ‘70s, facing racism from the truckers’ union bosses.
