If it weren’t for Riz Ahmed and Billie Piper carrying the film, City of Tiny Lights would fail to get any notable recognition
While there isn't a lot notably wrong with this film, it just feels like a drawn out TV drama
RIZ AHMED was either fresh off the set of Rogue One with a few weeks to kill or else City Of Tiny Lights was shot before his price tag went nuts and his choices widened right out.
Because, while there’s not a ton wrong with this honest and rather endearing London whodunnit, without Ahmed and Billie Piper’s eminently watchable perfomances, this would be pretty far down the Netflix list.
Riz is Tommy, a louche private eye who’s taken on a missing person’s case, which takes in London at it’s worst via Islamic radicalisation, prostitutes, American spooks, drugs dealers - and that’s just in the first 10 minutes.
Alongside this increasingly complex and quite confusing mystery, are a series of flashbacks bringing to light a childhood tragedy, which obviously start intertwining with the matter at hand.
Whilst it has a canny way of portraying London in a way other recent attempts (100 streets springs to mind) fell short (a troubled, dangerous and depressed capital with real problems) but tends to feel like a very long TV drama with an occasionally iffy script (“That’s a lot of cheddar”).
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Despite all this, I found myself watching and enjoying the whole lot.
Sadly a bit too much Vandross, not enough Luther.
City Of Tiny Lights (15) 110mins
Rating: ★★☆☆☆