The plot is simplistic and predictable, but Clint Eastwood mixes a drug running story of “The Mule” with humor and occasional flashes of his tough edgy acting – at 88 years old.
The idea of a Korean War vet in his 80s running cocaine for the murderous Sinaloa drug cartel may seem improbable, but this movie was actually inspired by the real experience of Leo Sharp, a 90-year-old World War II veteran who ran drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel. Sam Dolnick wrote The New York Times magazine article “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule” on which this movie is based.
The movie weaves together two parallel stories of Earl Stone, an Army veteran who in civilian life was a well-known grower of hybrid lilies but now has fallen on hard times. One story is Earl’s estrangement from his family for placing his business success ahead of family relationships, and the other is his deepening involvement with drug cartel as one of its top mules, transporting over 200 pounds of cocaine at a time between distribution locations.
The stories are Hollywood clichés rescued only by the performance of Clint Eastwood who might give hope to aging actors that still have a future. As producer, director and central character, Eastwood has drawn together some well-known Hollywood faces, undoubtedly his friends, from the 190s and 1990s. Diane Wiest came to prominence in the 1980s winning two Academy awards (Hannah and her Sisters in 1986, Bullets over Broadway in 1994). Now, at 70, plays Earl’s bitter ex-wife who struggles between memories of their love and the reality of Earl’s neglect.
Laurence Fishburne is burned into movie history as the lithe, wild, drug-addled Tyrone Miller, nicknamed Clean, in Apocalypse Now and the dignified rebel leader Morpheus in The Matrix, as well as his Oscar in 1993 for playing Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It. Here, at 61, Mr. Fishburne heads the FBI’s investigation into the cartel. And the cartel’s drug lord Latón is played by veteran gangster Andy Garcia, 67, memorable from Oceans 11, 12, 13, as casino owner Terry Benedict and from Kill the Messenger as the drug dealer Norwin Meneses).
Hollywood is notoriously unforgiving of aging actors, for always searching for the next “fresh face,” so it’s good to see these older actors still working, but in this movie, they are playing flat, one-dimensional roles that could be played at almost any age, by actors in their 30s, 40s or 50s. Hollywood discards aging actors, but sometimes worse, the fantasy machine isn’t able to tell the deeper, more age-appropriate stories of those facing the last stage of life. Perhaps the fault lies with the American public which has no interest in paying money to learn that the flash and sizzle of the first half of life looks pale and empty by the second half.
Older actors could tell us stories about wisdom, meaning and what it’s like to face eternity, but then they would cast doubt on the value of American obsession with youth, romance, glamour and power. The public would have to question the legitimacy of the foundations of their own mad dash lives – and that, at times, can be unbearable.
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