Nick of Time - Movie Review

In 1995, Johnny Depp was already famous and a respected actor, but he wasn’t a movie star yet – he was still just an actor; one of my favorite secret treasures. Then along came the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and suddenly Johnny Depp was popular and desirable to an entirely newer, larger generation, and his respect and accolades as a great actor were also elevated.


When I first watched Nick of Time in the theater in 1995 I thought it was as close to a Tom Clancy type of story as Johnny Depp would probably ever get, but now with endless star power Tom Clancy might just be thinking of something specifically for Johnny Depp.

In Nick of Time, a recently widowed Gene Watson (Johnny Depp) has arrived in Los Angeles with his six-year-old daughter Lynn (Courtney Chase). They took the train from San Diego where they were attending the funeral for Gene’s wife and Lynn’s mother. Before they exit the terminal they are pulled aside by two government agents – Mr. Smith and Ms. Jones – who ask for his identification and then escort him to a parked van outside. Once inside the van, Gene is informed by Mr. Smith (Christopher Walken) that he is responsible for carrying out a murder at a hotel and if he does not perform this task within the next ninety minutes, a very trigger-happy Ms. Jones (Roma Maffia; Nip/Tuck) will kill six-year-old Lynn. After some abusive influencing by Mr. Smith, Gene agrees to the dreadful deed. He is supplied with a sealed envelope containing the identity of the future victim and a revolver.

Every time Gene buckles under stress and attempts heeding the aid of anyone willing to listen, Mr. Smith appears from out of nowhere, seeming practically five feet away at all times and losing patience. After arriving at the hotel, during a morbidly coincidental moment Gene discovers that he has been sent to kill the Governor of California Eleanor Grant. Luckily, Gene does find someone willing to believe him yet reluctant to help; a shoe-shiner and ex-army veteran named Huey (Charles S. Dutton; Roc), and Gene does need all the help he can get when he finds out that Mr. Smith and Ms. Jones are not working alone, and their accomplices could be anyone anywhere inside that hotel.

Nick of Time feels like director John Badham (WarGames) is doing his best Hitchcock impersonation with mystery men appearing from thin air, the simple plot but complexity of the situation and the characters involved, which the script by Patrick Sheane Duncan (Mr. Holland’s Opus) provides the basis for. The film is steadily paced, but sometimes the tension isn’t tense enough; like someone took a misstep on to the mountain ridge five seconds before the rickety bridge collapses thousands of feet instead of one second. The actors make this movie better than it might be. Johnny Depp turns in his usual thespian goodness, especially because I believe this is the least dynamic character he has ever played which is exactly what the story called for. Instead, he lets Christopher Walken take the reigns of awkwardness with a mindset of malice fueling his desire to complete the mission. As a large fan of both actors it was a treat to see them working closely together for a large portion of the film. Charles Dutton turns in his typical, proud everyman performance but I haven’t ever seen him turn in a bad performance. Roma Maffia as Ms. Jones plays my kinda gal. She had no qualms over venting little Lynn’s skull with a bullet and was ready to kick and kill anyone’s ass that annoyed her. And Courtney Chase was such an adorable six-year-old girl. She was so cute, even when the barrel of the gun was pointed at her head.

Nick of Time is not one of Johnny Depp’s more notable films, but it tells a good story at a consistent pace but with inconsistent tension; however the actors involved save it from imploding, and it was a personal treat seeing Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken share the screen.