Deep Cover

There’s a scene where Jeff Goldblum is asked what more he wants when he has a wife and child who love him, and he says “I want my cake and eat it too”. This is the perfect analogy for the movie. It wants to be one thing while being another — namely, a hybrid of a police drama, gangsta drug dealing story, and a noir movie. By 1992, noir was such a throwback as to feel silly; the moody, melodramatic narration, the femme fatale, the detective in over his head, and all of it rarely subtle or nuanced. Deep Cover nails all that, but the problem is it’s a terrible fit with the gritty story of a straight-edge cop going undercover to bust LA’s biggest coke dealing ring. That kind of story needs an authenticity that the trappings of film noir are not just incapable of providing, but by mashing them together, it kinda makes the whole thing campy. The narration is too hard-boiled gumshoe, and the tone and atmosphere feel all wrong for the story. Even the direction can be hammy and out of place, like the use of horizontal wipes (once ushered in by a character walking across the screen). And the movie is too long by at least 15 minutes; there is definitely some fat to be trimmed here. It’s a credit to actors like Larry Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum that they’re able to keep the steak-and-ice cream mix of these genres from teetering over into outright satire. Their acting is what keeps this movie moving along and holds your attention. They have a natural chemistry. Watching both of them unravel in their own ways — Goldblum as an insecure narcissist, and Fishburne as a man succumbing to vices he swore all his life he’d fight against — as they fall for the toxic allure of power and money in drug dealing.  The supporting cast is equally fun to watch, from the sleazy racist CO to the various members of the drug cartel. Overall, this movie is a tug of war between the good acting and the ham-fisted mashing of two genres that do not blend. Either the acting will carry you through, or the clumsy directing and wildly conflicting tone will push you away. For me, the acting won out … but not by much.