Mike Kendall (John Hawkes) is a drunk. He lost his police job after a drunken shootout with a criminal. He finds a woman left for dead on the side of the road. He brings her to the hospital but she passes away soon after. He kept her phone and gets a call from a crass man who he believes to be her pimp. He decides to investigate her case on his own.

This is an indie crime drama with some very impressive character actors. I don't know if it's the presence of Robert Forster but I get an Elmore Leonard vibe. Granted, it's not quite the same. Hawkes is a great character actor and his elevation into the lead is very commendable. He is a compelling actor with real empathy. I like his character's redemptive story arc. That's why the money is unwanted. Getting paid diminishes his selfless act. The two henchmen are great. The movie is filled with great character actors. There is pulpy goodness here.

Not perfect, but not bad either. A movie that has a nice story, a believable character who is down on his luck. That may make him more likeable but it may also sway people the other way. It's a difficult role and a walk on a fine line for our main actor.

The violence is there and you have to stay with it to follow the plot. Good cinematography, good script and nice flow to it all. So while you may be able to predict things as this moves along, it still has some punches and things you may not expect or at least be surprised by a little bit. Watch it if you like small movies (budget wise) and all that

A number of seemingly unconnected events collide in this story of an alcoholic ex-cop seeking redemption over a failed traffic bust and the murder of his partner. As if Mike Kendall's (John Hawkes) luck wasn't bad enough, the roadside shootout resulted in the death of a woman bound and gagged in the trunk of the perp's car, courtesy of on-the-job drunk Kendall. Now I don't know about you, but when this was all revealed in a series of flashback scenes, I had to wonder why Kendall was still walking around loose, not to mention attempting to get his old job back. Am I missing something here?

So with that unconventional premise, Kendall stumbles into a blackmail plot and local prostitution ring that gradually sucks in former associates of Kendall on the police force and members of his own family. There's a bit of a shock value twist provided by Octavia Spencer's role as the wife of Kendall's best friend Teddy (Anthony Anderson); turns out she's Kendall's sister by foster family adoption. She's black, he's white, makes for diversity but somewhat incredible given the circumstances.

You know, this isn't the first time I've run into this, so maybe it bears mentioning. There's a bull of a hit-man in this flick that goes by the name of Orthopedic (Jeremy Ratchford). Maybe I missed it, but I never heard his name used in the picture, and the only way I know it is because I use captioning when I watch movies. Otherwise, how would I have known? By way of comparison, I never figured out what his partner called himself, I missed his name as well if it was given. Kind of frustrating.

Oh well, the eventual showdown results in Kendall achieving a measure of the redemption he was looking for, even if it took his brother-in-law taking a bullet and all the bad guys getting wiped out. You had to hang around after the first set of closing credits to learn that the third real estate guy got nabbed by Mood (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Yendel (Robert Forster). If you missed it, no big deal. It's not like it was a Marvel comic flick hooking you for a sequel.

So what's with my summary line, you ask? Well yeah, this movie had a hooker named Heidi (Caity Lotz) who was also a Sharon Stone Look-alike. Right before watching this film, I caught a Western titled "Gone Are the Days" with Lance Henriksen in the lead, who had a daughter who wound up a prostitute when her mentor was killed. That Heidi role went to Meg Steedle.