'Highest 2 Lowest' suffers from more lows than highs

I can't say that I'm a big Spike Lee fan, but I have no problem giving his films a chance. When I saw that Denzel Washington is starring in Lee's newest film, it immediately went to the top of my list. "Highest 2 Lowest" is now available on Apple TV+.David King (Washington) is a New York City music mogul, founder of Stackin' Hits Records and is renowned as a man who can spot up and coming talent. He has produced the music of more than 50 Grammy winners. He's got the best ear in the business. His business sense is not as finely tuned.Stackin' Hits has hit a bit of a rough spot financially. It's barely breaking even. There's an offer on the table by a rival company to buy out Stackin' Hits, and a majority of the board of directors wants to accept. King wakes up one morning and decides he wants to buy back a controlling interest in the company he founded. He makes a handshake deal to do just that before discussing it with his wife, Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera). He will have to put up most of his personal assets and get a mortgage on his stunning penthouse apartment to make the deal.Just as he convinces Pam to take this leap of faith with him, King gets a call. His son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) has been kidnapped. The kidnappers want $17.5 million dollars to release Trey. It's virtually everything they have, but David and Pam agree to hand over that princely sum, only to learn that the kidnappers aren't very smart. Instead of Trey, they kidnapped his best friend Kyle (Elijah Wright), who is also the son of David's driver and best friend Paul (Jeffrey Wright).The kidnappers still want King to pay the ransom, even though they don't have his son. King must decide whether to give up his entire fortune, money that he worked his whole life to accumulate and that he needs to buy back Stackin' Hits, for someone who isn't his son. And that's only about half of the overly long film.I have a lot of things to say about "Highest 2 Lowest," most of them unfavorable. Let's start with the characters. All but a few of the characters are flat and lifeless. David, Pam, Trey, Kyle and the hapless Keystone Cops that investigate the kidnapping are unemotional and uninteresting. David and Pam don't seem upset their son is missing, like it's just another day in their lives, a ho hum bump in their road. The police have no sense of urgency (at one point they decide everyone should go home and sleep in the middle of a hostage situation) and are totally incompetent.Of the main characters, only Jeffrey Wright stands out in any way. As a convicted felon who did time in prison, he is immediately on the radar of the NYPD, but he pushes back at them with ferocity. His reaction to his son being taken is one of the few moments of genuine emotion in the movie. Rapper A$AP Rocky plays Yung Felon and, though he doesn't have a ton of screen time, he performs well. Yung Felon is not intended to be likeable, and he's not, but he does so in a way that makes him a believable character.I am as big a fan of Denzel Washington as anyone else. He is one of the few actors who is recognizable with only a first name. He's a Hollywood legend. Having said all that, he is not good in this movie. He shows no emotion, his affect is flat. His performance, along with many others in the film, is boring.Two other aspects of the movie were perplexing. The police were comically inept, though not in a Naked Gun kind of way. The movie acted like their total incompetence was normal and serious, when it was actually pathetic. Also, the score for the movie was discombobulating. I don't talk about score very often, but the music in this movie often doesn't match the on-screen action. What you hear is the opposite of what you see. There was a total disconnect between the score and the action to the point that it was incredibly distracting.Disconnected. That sums up the film. The characters were disconnected from the serious events that were occurring. It created a very strange tone that was off-putting and damaged any chance that I might have enjoyed the movie.Grade: C-Rated R for language throughout and brief drug use.•••Bradley Griffith is a local attorney and longtime film buff.