For a character piece based in London, we go to 2016’s 100 Streets. An ensemble film, this one concentrates on three separate lives that all flesh out within a small section of the metropolis.

Retired athlete Max (Idris Elba) struggles to adapt to life without sports, and he also suffers through relationship problems with estranged wife Emily (Gemma Arterton). Kingsley (Franz Drameh) works as a petty drug dealer but he aspires to find more legal – and creative - ways to make a living.

Middle-aged cab driver George (Charlie Creed-Miles) and wife Kathy (Kierston Wareing) plan to have a family via adoption but their dreams go off-course in the aftermath of a terrible car accident. We trace these threads and how they intersect.

That plot synopsis gives Streets a serious Crash vibe, but Streets differs in that its characters don’t cross paths all that often. Really, after the opening sequence allows them some connections, the movie splits into the three different stories without much additional interaction across these divides.

This allows Streets to avoid the cutesy cross-pollination of Crash but the movie doesn’t rise above the cheap drama of the 2005 Oscar winner. While it may lack the same credulity-stretching gimmicks of Crash, Streets doesn’t manage any greater depth.

94 minutes seems like an insufficient span to explore the lives of three different sets of characters, and Streets suffers from the relatively brief running time to delve into matter sufficiently. The film flits from one domain to another in a manner that robs all of them of potential.

Some ensemble packages make sense, but in this case, the story doesn’t use the format to a logical end. In truth, it feels like the screenwriter came up with three narrative concepts but lacked the patience to flesh out each one so he just cut corners and went with these abbreviated character sketches.

Not that I can blame the film’s length for all its sins, as even if the movie ran three times as long – or if each segment got its own movie – I don’t think Streets would work much better. As depicted here, the stories tend to be sappy and melodramatic, with thin, insubstantial participants.

Really, we don’t find an interesting personality in the bunch, and the movie substitutes cheap theatrics for real development or depth. This trend gets worse as the movie progresses, so expect some truly absurd moments along the way.

All of this adds up to a long 94 minutes. 100 Streets lacks the skill and coherence to meld its three narratives into a compelling whole.

100 Streets appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a good but not great transfer.

Sharpness was the least consistent aspect of the image. Though most of the flick looked accurate and concise, exceptions occurred. The movie could seem a smidgen soft at times, and not for obvious stylistic reasons.

Despite those instances, I felt the majority of the movie offered nice clarity. No issues with jaggies or moiré effects materialized, and edge haloes were absent. Source flaws failed to become a factor here.

In terms of palette, Streets went with a stylized look. In an unsurprising move, the film emphasized orange and teal to a substantial degree. Those tones seemed acceptable given their limitations.

Blacks were reasonably dark and tight, while shadows showed decent to good delineation. Overall, the image looked acceptable, though the mild issues with sharpness led me to a “B“ grade.

When I examined the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Streets, I thought it was moderately active and involving. A fairly chatty piece, the mix used music and atmosphere to nice advantage. These elements created a good sense of place and movement that brought us a decent soundscape.

Audio quality was fine. Effects showed good clarity and range, while speech remained natural. Those of us in the States will want to activate the subtitles, though; the combination of accents and regional slang made some dialogue tough to understand.

Music was also clear and full, with appropriate range. The soundtrack didn’t excel but it connected with the material.

A Look Inside 100 Streets goes for 14 minutes, five seconds. It involves comments from writer/producer Leon Butler, director John O’Hanlon, producers Ros Hubbard and Pippa Cross, stunt coordinator Vincent Keane, casting directors Gemma Sykes and Daniel Hubbard, production sound mixer Nigel Albermaniche, Caudwell Children’s Ben Sutcliffe, and actors Gemma Arterton, Idris Elba, Franz Drameh, Kola Bokinni, Kierston Wareing, and Ken Stott.

“Inside” covers story/characters, the film’s path to the screen, stunts and sound, and the charity featured in the movie. The featurette offers a rudimentary look at the production and nothing more.

A mildly ambitious ensemble piece, 100 Streets lacks substance. It meshes narrative lines in an unconvincing manner to become an overwrought melodrama. The Blu-ray provides generally good picture and audio but it lacks major supplements. Not much about this film succeeds.