After a summer filled with retreads, ripoffs and
whatever in God’s name that thing with Kevin Spacey as the talking cat was
supposed to be, most moviegoers are at the point where they are desperate for
something that doesn’t look like it will actively insult their
intelligence. At first glance, “Hell or High Water” would seem to be just the candidate—it is written by Taylor Sheridan, whose first produced screenplay became last year’s largely acclaimed thriller “Sicario,” and directed by
David Mackenzie, the British filmmaker behind such intriguing works as “Young
Adam,” “Perfect Sense” and “Starred Up.” “Hell or High Water” even features a cast led by the
national treasure that is Jeff Bridges. And yet, while moviegoers desperate to
see anything that doesn’t involve a superhero may be willing to overlook its
shortcomings, others will undoubtedly be disappointed to find that it’s somewhat less than the sum of its parts.
As the film opens, brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben
Foster) arrive at a remote Texas Midland bank branch to rob it. While there are
some hiccups, they make off with the loose bills in the registers. They then
proceed to do the same thing at another branch of the same bank, and while
things go a little smoother, the end result is the same. As crime sprees go,
these jobs aren’t that impressive on the surface, but, as we soon discover,
there is a lot more going on with them than meets the eye. Texas Midland is the
bank, we soon learn, that has recently foreclosed on the family ranch after
some shady but legal maneuverings. To prevent losing the place and all it
represents (which is much more than initially meets the eye), the quietly intelligent
Toby has hit upon an ingenious plan to rob a string of Texas Midland
branches—only taking the register money to avoid dye packs and the interest of
anyone other than local cops—and then using their own money to pay back the
debt. He has even figured out a particularly clever way of laundering the take.
If not for the occasional danger represented by the more hotheaded Tanner, it
would seem like the perfect crime spree—no one gets hurt too much and the
victim, frankly, has it coming.
While most of the police investigating the robberies indeed fail
to give them much notice, U.S. Marshall Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges), an avuncular
lawman on the verge of retirement who comes across like a combination of
Columbo and Deputy Dawg, isn’t so sure. What looks like sloppiness to his
colleagues—not even trying to go for the big money—seems to him like
exceedingly clever planning. As Hamilton and his half-Comanche partner Alberto
(Gil Birmingham) pursue their unknown quarry, they even develop a certain
degree of admiration for the robbers because of the discipline driving their robberies. That said, this is still criminal activity, and when Tanner
impulsively decides to pull a heist on his own that lacks the careful planning
of the other jobs, it yields just enough information for Hamilton to start figuring things out. It also requires an acceleration in Toby’s planning, which ends up throwing things out of balance in ways surprising and
potentially tragic for all involved.
The early scenes of “Hell or High Water” are the best. After
seeing so many meticulously choreographed bank heists that try their damnedest
to outdo the likes of “Heat,” it is amusing to see one staged on a
smaller and more realistic scale. It becomes even more interesting once we understand that there is more going on than immediately meets the
eye. However, once writer Taylor Sheridan has established the basic premise, he doesn’t seem
to have much of an idea of how to fill the hour or so between those early
scenes and the climactic moments. Instead, he appears to have elected to raid
the Cormac McCarthy playbook in order to employ the celebrated author’s sparse
and laconic tone wherever possible. Sometimes this works, as in the punchy and
pungent lines of dialogue that crop up from time to time (Hamilton has a great
one when he spies a bank manager he wants to talk to and remarks, “Now that
looks like a man who could foreclose on a house”) or in some bits of bloody
black humor, such as the moment when the brothers try to take a bank where the
customers are packing more heat than the guards. More often than not, however,
it tries so hard to emulate the likes of “No Country for Old Men” at times that
you can feel it practically straining from the effort without quite pulling it
off. The finale is a particular disappointment—it is staged and performed about
as well as can be but the whole scene is just so unlikely that it fails to have
the impact that Sheridan and Mackenzie clearly desired.
Even though none of them are especially revelatory, the
performances are probably the best thing to be had in the film. The most
surprisingly satisfying of the bunch comes from Chris Pine, who turns in his
best work to date in a part that finds him dialing down the smirky charm of his nouveau Captain Kirk in order to play a far more serious-minded
character. As his brother, Ben Foster is okay but at this point in his career,
he might do well to avoid playing any characters in the near-future that could
be described as “twitchy.” As for Jeff Bridges, he is entertaining to watch—of course, one could count the number of his non-entertaining performances
on one hand and still have room left over in case “The Giver 2” ever becomes a
thing—but this is not a performance that will linger heavily in future Lifetime
Achievement Award highlight reels. Of the various supporting turns, the
spikiest one comes from Katy Mixon as a bone-tired waitress who receives a
large tip from a guilt-ridden Toby and lets Hamilton have it—not the money—when
he requests that she turn it over as being potential evidence.
It’s frustrating that “Hell or High Water” contains so many good
things that just don’t coalesce into a fully satisfying moviegoing experience. The
story as a whole is a little too derivative for its own good and not even the
strong elements are quite able to compensate for that. Of course, seeing as how even vaguely competent films have been so few and far between as
of late, some viewers may be a little more willing to overlook its flaws—to
wildly paraphrase one of the key lines from “No Country for Old Men,” “If it
ain’t a good movie, it’ll do till the good movie gets here.” If only it had
spent a little more time trying to find its own voice and a little less overtly
trying to ape the styles of its influences, “Hell or High Water” might have
been as good of a movie as it wishes it was.
