Review of Hell or High Water (2016) by Rameshwar I — 05 Dec 2016

A heist thriller packaged as a contemporary western with solid performances, dry humor and a social commentary on the effects of unguarded and insensitive capitalism. While it offers nothing new in terms of plot, narrative or screenplay - it more than makes up through confident direction, well defined character arcs and excellent performances throughout.

Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster) are estranged brothers who led completely different lives - one (Toby) as a doting son, caring husband and father, while the other (Tanner) has been on the wrong side of the law from the beginning who has spent most of his time in various prisons for petty thefts and robberies. When the bank announces to foreclose their property due to unpaid debts just when Toby discovers oil in their farm, he is desperate to get possession of it before it is reclaimed by the bank forever. Toby comes up with a plan to rob the same bank (multiple of its branches) and seeks assistance from his brother Tanner who regularly agrees. What happens when the plan is set in motion and a retiring police chief Marcus from a small town starts investigating.

Chris Pine was a revelation in this role. While it is not intense or award worthy, he does complete justice by portraying a stubborn, meticulous and sometimes desperate man to get over with what they started. Jeff Bridges has some of the best lines though they range from being insensitive to downright racist - he surely offends Indian tribes, blacks, mexicans etc. along the way. But the dry humor he evokes along with his Indian partner are worth a second watch. The screenplay plays down many intense sequences to ensure they do not get sopped down or become melodramatic which would be inconsistent with the overall theme.

The setup, the screenplay that reveals the plot without the characters saying it as a narrative shows the ability of the director about the confidence and the intensity shown in the 2013 'Starred Up' was a testimony to his talent. Jeff Bridges is one of the better contemporary Hollywood actors and his choice of roles has always been that extract maximum performance within the mainstream cinema. Ben Foster plays a very generic not so bright but trigger happy ex-con which has been played over many times but still done as good as it could be.

Sometimes innovation is not the only answer to standout. Perfection and old school intensity does work too.