‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ ’ lacks life

It’s a matter of record that the screenplay of “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” is a heavily fictionalized version of the real life of rapper 50 Cent, billed here as Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. But there’s no way his real life could have been as dull as the movie.

The outline of 50 Cent’s life includes losing his mother to the drug life, becoming a dealer and a jailbird, and eventually getting shot nine times. That’s nine times all at once, not over a period of years.

So 50 Cent might be considered the true-life version of the protagonist of “Hustle &Flow,” which was about a pimp who turns himself into a rapper. But that film, infinitely more exciting than “Get Rich,” proves that style and smarts are worth more than a docudrama.

“Get Rich” opens with Marcus, played by 50 Cent, involved in a violent hold-up that gets him shot. Flashback to childhood, as the kid Marcus is shuffled around the poor side of New York, tries out rapping rhymes, and buys his first gun as an adolescent.

Drug dealing follows, and the adult Marcus reconnects with a childhood sweetheart (Joy Bryant), a dancer who unaccountably falls head over heels for him.

A prison stint introduces a new character, the eccentric and funny Bama (played by Terrence Howard, whose spectacular performance lit up “Hustle &Flow”). Howard injects some much-needed personality into the picture.

His arrival, however, points out the big problem here. “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” has some drama, a few good lines, and decent actors, including Bill Duke and Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje (from “Oz” and “Lost”) as higher-ups in Marcus’ drug organization. But it revolves around a sleepwalking central performance from 50 Cent.

Except for a few rare playful moments when he briefly comes to life, 50 Cent maintains the same stone-faced expression in scene after scene. The director, Ireland’s Jim Sheridan (who made “My Left Foot” and “In America”), seems to be aiming for his leading man to have the kind of quiet power of a taciturn laconic hero.

Problem is, 50 Cent doesn’t look laconic – just self-conscious. He can’t get anything going with other actors, all of whom flitter around him as though trying to wake him up.

Sheridan stages a few unusual scenes, such as a fight in a prison shower, and his experience chronicling the Irish “troubles” serves him well in the gang-warfare stuff. Unlike the similar “8 Mile,” this film doesn’t have the lifeblood of music pumping through it (though there are some songs), and without that pulse, it goes flat pretty quickly.