What critics had to say about ‘The Old Man and the Gun’
Here's what reviewers think of Casey Affleck and Robert Redford's new film.
In a 2017 Boston.com interview promoting his film “A Ghost Story,” director David Lowery spoke of the “true joy” he got watching the chemistry between Casey Affleck and Robert Redford, the two lead actors in his latest film, “The Old Man and the Gun.”
“When they finally did a scene together, I realized they both get that gleam in their eyes,” Lowery said. “They both get that bemused look — I don’t know what it is, but it’s an electric charge that’s equal parts bemusement and excitement when it comes to performing a scene or engaging with the material.”
Based on a true story, “Old Man” follows the exploits of Forrest Tucker, an aged bank robber and prison escape artist who robbed dozens of banks with the help of two fellow senior citizens (Danny Glover and Tom Waits), earning them the moniker of “The Over-the-Hill Gang.” Affleck plays John Hurt, the real-life police detective who spent years chasing Tucker down.
“Old Man” is only playing in a limited number of Boston-area theaters this weekend, but the film has received an added boost of publicity due to Redford’s announcement that it would be his last on-screen role. (For the record, he later said that announcing his retirement was “a mistake,” and left the door slightly open for yet another swan song.)
Regardless of whether Redford is truly done with acting, the film has received positive marks from most critics, earning a 90 percent freshness rating from critical aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this article’s publication. In fact, while we usually sort our critic roundups into “The Good, “The So-So,” and “The Bad,” none of Rotten Tomatoes’ 31 top critics gave “The Old Man and the Gun” lower than a C+, so we’re ditching the last category this time around.
To help you decide whether to venture out to theaters this weekend, here’s what critics are saying about “The Old Man and the Gun.”
The Good
In her review for the Associated Press, Jocelyn Noveck called Affleck “excellent” in his role, but saves her fondest praise for Redford, holding out hope that the octogenarian actor holds off on his retirement.
Were it not for Redford, the film would be — well, why even ask, because Redford is the point. He chose the role, optioned the New Yorker article, chose the director. It’s a perfect role for his swan song. But hey, Mr. Redford? We won’t hold you to that.
Richard Brody of the New Yorker has a reputation as an unsparing critic, but he called “The Old Man and the Gun” one of the best movies of Redford’s career and Lowery one of the best directors of his generation.
Robert Redford’s desire to make worthy movies has often contrasted with his taste; his filmography isn’t up to his intentions. His latest film, “The Old Man and the Gun,” which he has said may be his last, may also be his best one and is certainly among the peaks of his career. He has conferred his formidable art to one of the best filmmakers of the time, David Lowery, who both wrote the script and directed the film.
Mark Feeney of the Boston Globe praised Affleck’s performance opposite Redford, noting how the life of his world-weary police detective becomes inextricably tied to Tucker’s.
Casey Affleck plays Tucker’s police-detective nemesis, doing so with stalwart weariness. He’s got a wife, a couple of kids, and the sort of disillusion that turning 40 can bring. Affleck shows how Tucker gets under the detective’s skin, and how one man’s compulsion to rob banks — which we see enacted on multiple occasions — inspires another’s compulsion to capture him. Affleck gives such a finely calibrated performance it’s only fair that he, not Redford, gets to give a nose-flick nod to “The Sting” (1973).
Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Nashawaty called Redford’s performance “one last gift.”
The film is fizzy, lightweight fun with some real moments of genuine heart. And Redford, with his frisky charisma and rascal’s grin that’s melted generations of hearts, owns every scene like he’s taking a valedictory lap on a career that began 60 years ago. If anyone has earned the right to take one, it’s him.
The So-So
In what he acknowledged was an unpopular opinion, Christian Science Monitor critic Peter Rainer wrote that Redford deserved a better final movie than “The Old Man and the Gun,” calling the film “a soggy send-off.”
At 82, Redford may want to rethink his fade-out. I say this because I am not among those critics who think “The Old Man & the Gun” is a fitting valedictory, although I can see why Redford and others might think so. It has a forced, elegiac wistfulness that a lot of people will mistake for deep-dish emotionalism. I think the film also disserves what Redford, at his best, can be as an actor in favor of a fraudulent, senior citizen variation on glossy movie-star iconography.
Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday wondered why Lowery directed the film as a lighthearted heist tale, when Tucker represented an odious model of white male privilege.
In fact, Redford’s inherent charms do so much of the work in “The Old Man and the Gun” that they obscure what a questionable character Forrest really is. Opening at a time when entitlement and privilege have never been more floridly expressed, here they are presented as benign, harmless and worth celebrating. Finally, an example of white male impunity we can root for!
