In the heist comedy “Going in Style,” Michael Caine, Morgan
Freeman, and Alan Arkin star as Joe, Willie, and Albert, lifelong friends who
hatch a drastic, late-in-life plan to become bank robbers. The catalyst for
this career change comes after the factory which employs the men suddenly
decides to shift manufacturing overseas to Vietnam, leaving their workforce
jobless and denying their pensions.
The film is a remake of Martin Brest’s somewhat under the
radar 1979 film starring George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg, but
director Zach Braff and writer Ted Melfi (“Hidden
Figures”) have sanded down the rougher edges of the original film. They’ve
removed much of the darkness and melancholy that comedies of that era could
still get away with — and the result is blandly inoffensive. But it’s breezy
and doesn’t take itself seriously, and filled with the sorts of jokes you can
probably predict: “Modern technology; how does it work?” and “Oy, my body isn’t
what it used to be!” The revamped film plays like “Grumpy Old Bank Robbers,”
right down to the presence of Ann-Margret (lovely as ever) as a romantic
interest for Arkin’s character.
We don’t learn much in the way of the men’s backgrounds; Joe
and Willie have children and grandchildren they want to provide for, though
Albert has no one else in his life. But Joe’s ultimate justification is simple
enough to understand: “I want to live better than I am.” Caine, Freeman, and
Arkin are talented enough performers that they inject their characters with
just a bit of pathos. Meanwhile, Melfi’s script
attempts to add some deeper layers, framing the robberies as payback for a
systemic problem: once society has decided that its members’ usefulness has run
its course, they’re often left stranded with little in the way of a lifeline.
Braff stages the film’s robbery sequences with a sitcom-y
style, working hard to assure us that despite any gunfire, this is still a
comedy. To keep our leads even more sympathetic, they vow to steal only what
would have been in their pensions. If they manage to get more, they’ll donate
it to a worthy cause.
The friends enlist some professional help, plying a shady
criminal type (John Ortiz) to act as a consultant. Naturally, he also runs a
medicinal marijuana dispensary (cue the obligatory scene of old folks getting
stoned). They also have a foil in the form of an overly suspicious FBI agent
(Matt Dillon). A funny Kenan Thompson appears as the manager of a grocery store
where the trio stage a test run that goes amusingly astray, and Christopher
Lloyd adds a dose of zany humor as a senile acquaintance of the trio.
There are no real surprises to be found in “Going in Style”;
the real draw is seeing Caine, Freeman, and Arkin share the screen, and Braff
and Melfi are at least smart enough not to pretend
otherwise. The film is loaded with scenes of the three of them together, just
shooting the breeze. Watching them riff off one another is a pleasure; a
pleasant reminder that being a movie star isn’t just a young person’s game.
This article appears in Apr 5-11, 2017.
