Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) plays Mort Rainey. Mort is a successful and rather quirky mystery writer who spends most of his time in his robe sitting around his cabin, talking to both his dog and no one in particular and staring at his laptop computer awaiting inspiration and taking a lot of naps. One day a strange man he has never seen before by the name of John Shooter (John Turturro of Anger Management) proceeds to inform him that he stole his story pays him a visit.

Not a small accusation to levy on a writer by any means and especially troubling when the stranger proceeds to inform Mr. Rainey that he will not stop seeking retribution until things are set right. Its becomes alarmingly clear to Mort that Mr. Shooter means business; he makes his intentions crystal clear by killing Mort’s dog with a screwdriver within a day of introducing himself.

As if that’s not enough, Mort is also in the midst of a divorce and things are not going too well. There are still feelings between he and his soon to be ex wife. In addition to that, there is plenty of resentment to go around between the two and the addition of his ex’s new boyfriend. This resentment grows with each passing day as Mort refuses to sign the papers to make the divorce final. All this stress appears to have Mort on the brink and people on the brink are prone to do just about anything.

This movie is a mystery thriller and there are plenty of questions that a mystery thriller asks you and then proceeds to try and answer. While this film did a good job setting the stage and asking the questions, it fell short in my opinion when it came time to answer them. Depp is a delight in this role, Turturro is his fantastic self and Charles S. Dutton (Against the Ropes) turned in a good, but brief performance as well, but as story telling goes, this one fell a little flat.