The Old Man & the Gun

Slated to be Robert Redford’s last role before retiring from acting (in an interview he gave at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Redford talked about this film being a good note to end on, since the actor wanted his “last acting job to be fun”), this may be the sleeper hit this award season. The film has all the given trappings to get those coveted award nominations. A wonderful script (based on a 2003 article in The New Yorker by David Grann) and thoughtful direction by David Lowery as well as fantastic acting/casting choices, including four past Oscar winners – Redford, Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek and Keith Carradine (although Carradine is hardly in the movie!) – and one-time Oscar nominee (for his work on the musical One From the Heart) Tom Waits. The film recounts the fact-based story of Forrest Tucker (Redford) and his escape from San Quentin in 1979 at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of bank heists that dumbfounded authorities and enchanted the public interest at the time. A very interesting and well-done film.

[PG-13]