Review of The Old Man & the Gun (2018) by Hotelcentral — 07 Mar 2019

The problem here is that there isn't much of a story. It's about a guy who robs banks. He doesn't have any particular reason for robbing banks. He doesn't appear to have anything against banks. He just loves robbing banks and he doesn't even do the deed in a way you could call "clever." Like most modern bank robbers, he just walks into the place and quietly tells somebody he's robbing the bank and the teller or whoever hands over the money.

Also, he meets a woman. They go eat. They talk. That's pretty much it.

A great deal of time is devoted to the police detective who wants to catch the bank robber. This guy doesn't do anything very clever either. In fact, he doesn't do much of anything at all. The character is played as such a laid-back guy you have to wonder if he's got the energy to actually put handcuffs on anybody. He certainly doesn't do a lot of detecting and in the end it's a bunch of cops in uniform who do the arresting.

At some point the FBI takes over the case. That is the first and last time the FBI does anything significant in this film. It may also be the first and last time the FBI even appears in this film. I can't swear that I stayed awake through every minute of the entire film so my apologies to the "FBI" if I missed something.

Frankly, the film is so lackadaisical I wondered if it would die of natural causes before the end credits rolled.

And, yeah, Robert Redford is a fine actor, but in days to come I'll remember him for the Sundance Kid and Three Days of the Condor and All the President's Men. The Old Man and the Gun I've pretty much already forgotten.

Watch it if you must, but don't expect much.