Don’t stare too hard at who’s on the poster for “The Deputy,” a mostly compelling neo-noir about a small-town sheriff’s deputy and a missing dead body. A couple of A- and B-listers stand out among the movie’s ensemble cast, particularly Colleen Camp, Tiffany Haddish, and William H. Macy. They’re not the stars of the film, though, since, as the title implies, this movie belongs to Duke Nicholson’s titular lawman. That could be a problem for some viewers since, ultimately, Nicholson plays a taciturn, flat-footed patsy thrust into the middle of a scheme that’s way over his pay grade.
That’s also kind of the point in “The Deputy,” a diligent, but ultimately staid genre pastiche that banks hard on its stolid young lead’s charisma. In character, Nicholson has a flat, middle-of-the-road way of talking, and his colleagues and adversaries constantly second-guess or underestimate him. He’s also not a natural at his job, though that’s part of his unlikely appeal, too. You still have to care about Nicholson’s protagonist to get anything of value from the movie’s otherwise underwhelming climax, which even the most distracted viewer will likely see a mile off.
Nicholson plays Toby, a new father his boss, Sheriff Kreuger (Macy), assigns to watch a dead body. The dead guy, Luke Jordan (Zeb Higgs), wasn’t a stranger around Norman County, so the Sheriff and Toby’s colleagues all have their own ideas about what really happened. There’s also more to this story than what Toby’s told, of course, and after a few scenes, he loses track of the corpse. He follows a few leads and inadvertently steps into a conspiracy involving human trafficking, Luke’s brothers Derrick and Jace (Ben Smith-Petersen and Daniel Diemer), and police corruption, too.
Meanwhile, Toby’s complicated love life falls apart, between his unhappy wife Doris (Billie Lourd), who wants to move somewhere safer, like Houston, and his disenchanted goth mistress Molly (Devon Ross). Toby’s also got a baby at home, but he (played by twins William Burnham Simmons and Ryan Conner Simmons) doesn’t seem to mind.
You might think that Toby’s investigation would be the most satisfying part of “The Deputy,” and in some ways you’re right. The plot’s procedural elements set up several of the movie’s best and most fully realized scenes, including a few with a terrified but resilient migrant named Marisela (Alyssa Villa). There are also a handful of scenes where Toby has to run, fight, or hide from the various baddies who want to keep Luke’s body from being recovered. Here’s where your investment in Toby becomes important.
In his search for answers, Toby interacts with a variety of side characters who threaten to eclipse his slender but pivotal role. Even Stephen Dorff, who plays a gruff but collegial senior officer, threatens to steal “The Deputy” away from Nicholson, though that’s hardly his fault. Quirky supporting parts often make for great scene-stealers in this type of noir, so that’s nothing new. What really rankles is that this particular group of experienced performers ends up with so little to do. They have to make Toby seem more interesting, and to be fair, at least Ross and Lourd accomplish that in their scenes.
Then again, you might wish there was more than a handful of scenes with Macy’s quirky, but under-developed Sheriff, even though his hard-to-place accent is also a little distracting. The same is true of Haddish’s scenes, where she plays Amanda, a skeptical and sassy second fiddle to Toby’s harried lead.
Casting a character actor as your leading man always carries a risk, so you can’t really blame Nicholson for coming up short by comparison. If anything, the movie’s sturdy, but unambitious script and direction are more to blame, and it shows whenever Haddish struggles to make something of Amanda beyond a pile-on of crowd-pleasing cliches.
Thankfully, “The Deputy” works more often than not because Nicholson—Jack’s grandson—does what he can with his major and mostly thankless part. It’s easy to mistake his passive drawl and shuffling pace for a lack of experience, but you can also see the actor’s intelligence and sensitivity whenever he plays off his more seasoned colleagues. More importantly, Nicholson holds his own whenever Toby’s body language speaks for him. As the movie progresses, he becomes more and more of a sweaty, beaten-down mess, which also endears him to us.
The rest of the movie’s shortcomings say more bout the filmmakers’ lack of perspective than its leading man’s abilities. “The Deputy” could have been better, and that’s never more apparent than whenever Nicholson gets painted into a corner by his role’s stifling limitations. The rest depends on how much you want to root for another sketchy underdog.
