This is a movie that I never heard about until looking through the filmography for Johnny Depp. My wife, Jaime, and I are running through this for a podcast, JwaC Presents Depp Dive: A Depper Dive into Johnny's Filmography. Seeing that this featured the likes of Eric Roberts, Beverly D'Angelo and Dan Hedaya, I was intrigued.
Now that I've gotten that information out there, what we're getting here is a neo-noir film. Jacob Asch (Roberts) is a former reporter who fell on hard times. He had a hard hitting story, but his station didn't back him. He was unable to reveal his source in court so he lost. He is then hired by Gerald McMurty (Raymond J. Barry) to look for his ex-wife and son. That makes Jacob a private investigator.
This takes him to Palm Springs. He follows a trail looking for Laine Fleischer (D'Angelo). That also brings him to meet her step-son Donnie (Depp). Jacob thinks that he's Gerald's son, but it turns out to be Simon's (Hedaya) son. Gerald and Laine's son passed away. He had no idea. This puts a series of events into motion and secrets to be revealed.
Doing an extended synopsis reveals the Film Noir troupe characters. Roberts' Jacob character is our private investigator. Being that this is a neo-noir, he isn't a PI by trade. He is a former reporter and this is his first job. Laine is our femme fatale and I thought that D'Angelo manages it well. There is also a drug dealer who injects our lead which feels right of movies I saw from the past. It is a good touch to the story we're building. There's even voice-over narration given by Roberts to keep us up to speed with what he's thinking.
I thought that the acting was fine. Roberts is decent as the lead. D'Angelo steals the show from him though. I do think that acting is a bit subdued across the board and that the writing is stiff, which doesn't help. We do get an appearance here by Henry Gibson as Robert who I believe is the owner of the gallery for Gerald's show. Hedaya is solid as was Depp and Emily Longstreth. What is interesting there is that the last two starred together in the comedy Private Resort.
What I'll say in closing is that this is fine. We are getting a made for TV/Showtime film. It is reminiscent of Film Noir, but this neo-noir is lacking the staying power with what it is doing. The mystery kept Jaime and I engaged. Not one I'd come back to, but having seen it, I thought that it has a solid group of actors that interact well.
My Rating: 6 out of 10.
