BEFORE: It's been another very full week for crime-related films, and we still have a couple more to go before the Summer Concert (and Documentary) Series kicks off. First there was the illegal pot-growing and general London gangster shenanigans in "The Gentlemen", then a murder trial in "The Lincoln Lawyer", followed by ritual murders in "Frailty" and illegal time-travel gambling in "Time Lapse". Back to drug dealing in "Brick" and then a hijacking in "7500", finally I can sort of round out the week with another bank heist.
Bad news, though, I may be over the legal limit on bank heists already this year. Way back in January I watched "The Nut Job" (I know, it was a kid's animated film, but it did have a bank robbery in it...), and then even if I ignore the more general crime films, there was "Heist", "Stockholm", "Bad Times at the El Royale", "Hard Rain", "Den of Thieves", "Faster", "The Trust", and "Supercon", all films about stealing money out of safes, or armored cars, or finding old money that WAS stolen decades ago. SO really this is my TENTH heist film in 2020, and I'm pretty sure the legal limit is eight in any calendar year. Look, it's a zoning thing, I agreed to certain conditions when I started this blog. I'm going to proceed, but I could lose my license for this, that's all I'm saying.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt carries over from "7500".
THE PLOT: Chris is a former high-school athlete whose life was turned upside-down following a tragic accident. As he tries to maintain a normal life, he takes a job as a janitor at a bank, where he ultimately finds himself caught up in a planned heist.
AFTER: It turns out there are life lessons in nearly every film, if you're looking for them. Today's film teaches us that we should never drive a car fast down a Midwest country road at night and turn the headlights off. Sure, it impresses the ladies, but it's just not safe. Years later, the lead character here, Chris Pratt (not the famous one from "Jurassic World" and "Guardians of the Galaxy") is still recovering from the accident, physically and guilt-wise. His girlfriend at the time survived, only they're not together any more, but two passengers died - and he's still having trouble with remembering things, and other cognitive functions like the proper sequencing of things.
This may have a lot to do with why he falls for a very obvious honey-trap, that's a scheme where he gets seduced by an attractive young (former) exotic dancer who draws him into a circle of friends that's only interested in getting to know him because of his night job at the bank. He's only a janitor, but because he works overnight essentially he's a de facto security guard, plus he knows a lot about the bank layout, how often the local police come by on patrol, and which donut shops nearby stay open late. Valuable stuff - nobody wants to rob a bank on an empty stomach, plus a sugar rush would probably help the gang unload the safe faster.
Chris tends to write a lot of things down in his notebook, just to help him get through the day, which is great for re-training his brain, but terrible for keeping secrets from others. He's also got a blind roommate that was paired up with him at the disability training center, and two parents who will help with his rent, but not with the costs of starting up a restaurant with his roommate. The roommate has great cooking skills, but is the absolute WORST at coming up with restaurant names, just trust me on this point. My point is that Chris needs money, can't get it from his parents, so he's vulnerable to a bunch of friendly drinking buddies who want to rope him in to their scheme, then rope him up later and leave him for dead somewhere.
By the time he realizes that this crew may not have his best interests in mind, it's too late, the plan's been made and he's part of it, so backing out would mean an untimely end for him or somebody close to him (another running theme this week, doing bad deeds to protect friends and family, as seen in "The Lincoln Lawyer" and "Frailty"...). His only hope is to outsmart the robbers, which would be so much easier if he didn't have that pesky brain injury...
I feel for this character, I really do, he's complex and his troubles make you want to root for him, but outside of him, I'm just not sure there's much more to this film. As heists go, I've seen several more intricate ones this year, like "The Trust" and even "The Nut Job", sad to say. Chris' memory troubles also sort of hearken back to "Memento", but it can't really hold a candle to that film - which reminds me, I'm probably overdue to re-watch "Memento" some time soon, maybe in August, because it's been a while, and that's one of my favorites.
On the upside, Matthew Goode is in this film, and every time I see him, he's playing a totally different type of character - from Ozymandias in "Watchmen" (another film I want to re-watch soon) to the cynical Irish pub owner in "Leap Year", he pops up now and again and takes me by surprise, because he always looks different and has a different accent, but yet he's very believable in whatever. The other lead bank robber here I didn't recognize, but he looks kind of like Bill Nighy combined with Brian May from Queen, but totally goth and cool, if that makes sense.
Also starring Jeff Daniels (last seen in "State of Play"), Matthew Goode (last seen in "The Sense of an Ending"), Isla Fisher (last seen in "The Beach Bum"), Carla Gugino (last seen in "Faster"), Bruce McGill (last seen in "Fair Game"), Alberta Watson (last seen in "The Sweet Hereafter"), Alex Borstein (last seen in "Killers"), Sergio Di Zio (last seen in "The Walk"), David Huband (last seen in "Breach"), Laura Vandervoort (last seen in "Ted"), Greg Dunham, Morgan Kelly (last seen in "The Shape of Water"), Aaron Berg (last seen in "The Kitchen"), Tinsel Korey, Suzanne Kelly, Brian Roach, Martin Roach (last seen in "Shazam!"), Janaya Stephens, Marc Devigne,
RATING: 5 out of 10 showers (with soap)
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