Finding the way back in powerful "Steps"

Rob Morgan, an actor whose extraordinary empathy has enhanced such diverse films as “Mudbound,” “Bull” and “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” among many others, creates a moving portrait of despair and hope in “Steps.”

The film, about the far reaching and multigenerational effects of gun violence, deftly balances realism and optimism in a moving look at characters in a gritty New Jersey neighborhood. Morgan plays Brian Coleman, whose life descends into alcoholism and homelessness after a random shooting nearly kills him. He survives but loses everything: his wife, and the son she’s carrying that he never gets to know. The story kicks in years later as destitute Brian is living on the streets and longingly looking in on the life that was taken from him: his son Omar (Darius Kaleb), now 14, and his still wounded wife Wendy (Tia Dionne Hodge) who is about to remarry. An unexpected encounter with a compassionate pastor (Robert McKay) leads Brian to slowly start to rebuild his self worth: he attends AA meetings and takes a job as a home health aide to Taji (Walter Fauntleroy), an embittered paraplegic. Brian recognizes Taji as the shooter from a lifetime ago and takes out his rage on him. But Taji is a victim, too, and as the film progresses, a genuine bond develops that puts both men on a path to redemption as they battle back from life’s unfairness and brutality.

Writer Eddie Harris and directors Rock Davis and Jay Rodriguez, Jr. avoid sentimentality and simplification. “Steps” grounds its story and characters in gritty realism, from the halls of AA meetings to blighted street corners where lives can spiral in a split second. The actors in the refreshingly nearly all Black cast are terrific from top to bottom. Hodge gets to be more than the angry wife with some key scenes and young Kaleb holds his own with the stellar Morgan as they create a naturally evolving father/son relationship. There are a few contrivances that too conveniently forward the plot, but these are forgivable in a film of such emotional heft and depth.