Review of Hell or High Water (2016) by Ryan W — 17 Dec 2016

Falling into the category of "neo-western", Hell or High Water manages to play with some familiar western tropes. Landing us square in the open Texas landscape, the imagery immediately positions itself as a leading character in the film, contrasting debt relief signs and poverty amongst pictures of oil rigs and prosperity. it's bleak but beautiful, and intentionally complex, and it lends perfectly towards three great on-screen performances by Pine, Bridges and Foster.

Pine and Foster play two estranged brothers who are reunited by the death of their grandmother and the ensuing fight to save their family ranch. Bridges plays a sheriff who is facing retirement but finds himself pulled into the case of a string of robberies that the greater law enforcement sees as too small to warrant attention.

The film opens with a scene of a small, unpolished robbery sequence that introduces us to the fact that it is the two brothers that are committing the robbery. The real question of the film is why they are robbing the banks, and this question is probed throughout the duration of the film. It is this question that also provides the nuanced moral landscape that pulls us back and forth from good intentions to questionable choices. In this way, the film toys with the romance of the outlaw, which is really where we find the true brilliance of the film. The story is simple, almost familiar, but it is the feature-length character study that makes the story so intriguing and watchable. There is no clear-cut redemptive story at play here, and no clear-cut villain or hero.

It would be hard to speak of this film without mentioning the obvious. There is a sort of dark humor at play, particularly in the performances, that warrant comparisons to the Coen Brothers (particularly No Country For Old Men). But the film is more than just a copy of their familiar literary style, and the performances ensure that Hell or High Water paves it's own path. What is most interesting about the performances is the way it taking actors (certainly Pine and Bridges) most accustomed to lead roles and playing them off each other in three supporting roles. No single character is asked to carry the film, and while this might diminish the ability of the film to represent a single, stand-out performance, what it does is open the door for the actors to truly engage their roles without the added pressure. We see this mostly in the down and gritty performance of Pine, who plays the more grounded brother (Foster is the more off-the-cuff character most likely to make the questionable choices along the way) who becomes less grounded as the story goes on. Pine really offers an intriguing character study as one who must navigate his character with subtle purpose as he moves back and forth between this complicated development. Bridges is equally good in his role, and is offered an opportunity to engage a performance that is a bit more straight-forward and on the surface than Pine's, which shows to be a nice fit (and requires equal balance) for a man who is used to giving everything to characters that require an immense level of depth. It is nice to see him give a performance that is so relaxed.

Hell or High Water is set in an age past, but it feels incredibly in tune and relevant as a piece that seems adept at giving a nod to the coming future.