CITY OF LIES

CITY OF LIES stars Johnny Depp as Detective Russell Poole and Forest Whitaker as journalist Jack Jackson. During the opening of the film, Poole is called to investigate a road rage incident turned deadly that before long, sets him on a course in search for the killer of Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. Years later, Jackson hunts down Poole, now living in isolation after having been forced out of the LAPD, to inquire what his investigation found as he writes a 20 year retrospective piece on Wallace. Poole takes him through what he found, where he was forced to not follow leads by his superiors, and why. An interesting subject matter with 2 household names that should have made for a better film. The script is soft, leaving Depp and Whitaker with not much to chew on. However, Depp in particular seems to be going through the motions as this seems like a cash grab film for him. The detective he's playing, Poole, lost his family, job, and reputation as many consider him to be nothing more than a cooky conspiracy theorist, due to this case. I never got any sense of that anger, frustration, loneliness, or isolation one would expect from a man who's lost everything attempting to simply do his job. The final product is disappointing, even if it does make some explosive accusations about who was really involved in the death of The Notorious B.I.G. 5.5/10