First Take: The Old Man and the Gun- a nice farewell to the Sundance Kid

SYNOPSIS: Based on the true story of Forrest Tucker and his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public.

Screen Unseen has really become a fixture on the blog this year, as it has never failed to deliver a film that gets some very good praise from audiences around the country. Unfortunately last night, the film divided the opinion of the Great Man and Women™ of the blog, especially with it being the final Robert Redford performance before he retires from acting.

David Lowery writes and directs the film well, and even with a problematic script that lacks much depth, he still manages to turn in a pretty enjoyable 93 minute film that does an alright job of bringing this (surprisingly) true story to the big screen, however, the film could have done more in terms of character development for Forrest and the ‘Over the Hill Gang’ he commanded. It’s shot well by Joe Anderson, and like the other film I seen yesterday, Daniel Hart’s score is a Ronseal job. Technically, the execution could have been better, with a more fuller plot, but this film is built about one very important thing.

And that thing is very obvious considering the PR has all been about Mr Redford- he puts in a brilliant final performance before he rides into the sunset, and with Sissy Spacek working alongside him, the pair of them can make their characters come to life effortlessly, plus, with Casey Affleck playing the detective tasked with bringing Forrest in to custody, alongside Tom Waits and Danny Glover, this cast are good, it’s just a shame that the quality feels more at home with the Sunday afternoon film on ITV- because that’s what it reminded a lot of people of. Considering the track record everybody’s favourite mystery film night has had this year, this is the weakest film that non-descript cinema chain have given us, and hopefully the next one on November 26th is better.

THE VERDICT

Redford’s performance saved this film from getting a 3 star rating (and potentially an episode of What The Hell Happened). Quite a brutal thing to say about a film with a cast like this, but unfortunately this is just what The Old Man and the Gun is like- not quite a future classic, but still pretty decent.

RATING: 4/5