It’s 1990. Joe Deacon used to work LA homicide, but a nervous breakdown sent him upstate as a deputy. Some evidence needed for a court case waits in LA, and Joe is the only person free to pick it up. While there, he sees Jim Baxter, his replacement, give a press conference regarding a serial murderer and no leads.
Joe spots some details that pique his curiosity. Jim needs all the help he can get. The two team up, despite the head of homicide command telling Jim to leave Joe alone. But Jim brings Joe in, and Joe seems to work on his own wavelength immediately. But it’s not just being a different detective — it’s that things are starting to look familiar.
Will Joe be the one to help Jim find the killer? Or will Joe’s angels start haunting Jim, too?
John Lee Hancock spent nearly 20 years trying to get this film made. It took Denzel Washington signing on for things to take off. Hancock’s script, while clean around the edges, feels quite dated — it seems likely that the movie takes place in the 90s only because that’s when Hancock wrote it.
Thematically, the movie feels a little undercooked. And I’m not referring to the ending so much as to what the movie seems to want to say. I see the “detective work will consume and destroy you” facet, but there’s also significant police ineptitude that keeps this movie moving. But what’s important is how the most significant errors come from the characters who care the most. Their greatest strength — that they have not let the job harden them, and they feel tears and a sincere desire for justice — is also their most significant flaw.
The result is such a mixed bag. The film starts quite slick and engaging, if a little slow. Denzel Washington comes in full force in this movie, making Joe a complicated character. Neither Rami Malek nor Jared Leto is up to the task, but Leto tries so hard to meet Washington.
I get why people hate this movie. Besides being as routine and cliché as possible, Leto gets so much screen time to chew scenery with lines that feel lifted from 100 other detective stories.
I still found Washington’s performance compelling, mainly because what I like about him is also what’s wrong with him.