3 stars

The Christopher Wallace (Jamal Woolard) of "Notorious" is a complicated guy. Devoted to his mother, he's callous to the other women in his life and sometimes neglectful of his daughter.

That the character seems to be all over the place makes sense in context. Wallace rose from Brooklyn drug dealer to rap sensation to a primary figure in the bitter East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry before being shot to death in 1997. That's a lot to pack into 24 years.

Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., simply didn't have enough time to forge a lasting identity, even though his large size and Al Capone suits made him seem very grown up.

"Notorious," a loving but warts-and-mostly-all tribute to Wallace produced by his mother, Violetta, and close collaborator Sean Combs, paints an engaging portrait of Wallace's short life while also sketching the man he might have become. Director George Tillman Jr. invests the film with plenty of energy to complement its sense of authenticity.

The film might have been just another middling musical biopic, however, had the lead role not been so perfectly cast. Woolard, like Wallace a rapper from the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, holds the screen quite ably. He also handles the complications of playing a character who, far younger than he (Woolard is 33), is also hard to pin down. Woolard can travel from heartless – Biggie sells crack to a pregnant woman after his fellow dealer refuses – to endearing in a flash. But the proof lies in the musical moments. Though his voice lacks the baritone richness of Wallace's, Woolard shares his ease with rhymes and his charismatic stage presence.

Tillman lends great vitality to recording and performance scenes, as well as a polish befitting scenes featuring Combs-produced tracks that married Wallace's graphic, streetwise lyrics with inviting pop and R&B melodies.

Part of the draw of "Notorious" is seeing actors playing such well-known characters. Some are ringers for their real-life counterparts (Antonique Smith as Wallace's fellow Bad Boy recording artist and eventual wife Faith Evans) and some look nothing like them (Derek Luke as Combs). But the performances share a certain flow, because Tillman doesn't stop to make a big deal out of the characters' entrances. Wallace and protegee Lil' Kim (Naturi Naughton, capturing the diminutive rapper's singular energy), for instance, seem to become acquainted in a fairly organic way.

Though these characters are fascinating in their own right, they're all just supporting characters in the life story of Wallace – even Tupac Shakur (Anthony Mackie), forever linked to Wallace in the pop-culture pantheon because of their rivalry and respective (and still unsolved) murders.

Mackie shares a passing resemblance to Shakur, but he fully imparts Shakur's kinetic energy and tendency to turn on a dime. Even the ever-changing Biggie has to marvel at what a chameleon Shakur is.

"Notorious" presents Biggie and Combs as virtual angels in the whole mess with Shakur. But one expects at least a little sugarcoating in what is decidedly the "official" story of Wallace's life.

Combs' heart is in the right place in wanting to tell his late friend's story, and there's a palpable sense of family to "Notorious" that extends to the portrayal of the young Chris by Wallace's real-life son, Christopher Jordan Wallace. The youngster is pretty poised considering he shares scenes with an actress (Angela Bassett) playing his grandmother.

Bassett, with ample help from screenwriters Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker, presents Violetta Wallace, a Jamaican-born single mother who tried to keep her son on the straight and narrow, as something of a saint. And while flawless people are wonderful – and no doubt, Wallace would have wanted his mother viewed in such a light – they're not particularly interesting to watch.

The screenwriters also miss opportunities for humor in "Notorious." By all accounts, including those of characters in the film, Wallace was hilarious. But we rarely see him be funny in the film.