The Old Man & the Gun (2018)
…………………………………………………
The Old Man & the Gun Movie Review
The Old Man & the Gun is a 2018 crime biopic film directed by David Lowery and starring Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck. It’s a flawed, but solid flick.
………………………………………………….
“Do you have any children?
I hope not“
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
I personally found the story rather slight, but most certainly very engaging and even pretty entertaining. This movie is so obviously influenced by those understated crime flicks from the seventies and that was done for better and for worse as the film needed much more sophistication and thematic resonance in it, but there is no denying its immense charm.
The scenes between Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek are simply wonderful that those scenes with Casey Affleck just couldn’t compete. Actually, I found each and every scene of his overly dull, slow and unimportant. He stalled the entire picture for me. Yes, he’s good with a reliably solid performance, but the character himself is uninteresting and he took valuable screen time from those two way too much in my book.
But yes, these two acting veterans are excellent here. They stole the show and are the best reason to see this film. And not just Robert Redford who’s so good (though not among the year’s best performances) and very charming and likable, but also Spacek who’s very endearing and a lot of fun. They were so obviously typecast, but they still did a good job and their banter was awesome and infectiously fun.
The Old Man & the Gun is at its best in that opening sequence which is the highlight of the film which peaked too early and never really came back to that level of greatness. I loved the intriguing meet-up of the two and the revelation that he’s a thief was so well pulled off. I bought their entire relationship owing to solid chemistry and the actors’ charisma.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
What I did not love, however, was everything that came after it excluding the solid ending. The middle parts dragged, the movie lost momentum and although the dialogue and humor are consistently good, the emotional levity was simply lacking in this instance.
The Old Man & the Gun peaked too early with that awesome, intriguing and dynamic first sequence that the rest of the movie simply could not compete. It’s in style influenced by the lighter, more understated 70s crime flicks for better and for worse and although the scenes with Casey Affleck are boring, Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek absolutely steal the show with their very effective banter and a charming relationship.
