The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

THE OLD MAN & THE GUN  (2018)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: David Lowery
    Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck,
    Tika Sumpter, Tom Waits, Danny Glover,
    Gene Jones, Ari Elizabeth Johnson, Keith Carradine
This movie opens with a title that's a direct throwback to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Toward the end, Casey Affleck does something that's a direct reference to "The Sting". Neither of those things is an accident, what with Robert Redford playing a courtly old outlaw who's spent his entire life either escaping from prison or robbing banks. Sissy Spacek plays a widow he connects with in between heists. Affleck plays the detective who's out to track him down. Like its protagonist, the film  moves about comfortably, taking its time. Whole long scenes are just Redford and Spacek hanging out in a booth in a diner, talking over coffee, and the chemistry seems so effortless, you wouldn't mind if they just went on and on. Sometimes it's enough just to look at them. Age lines and all, these are people who know what to do with a closeup. Redford announced his retirement from acting a few weeks before the picture's release, and he's never appeared more relaxed and at peace with himself. He's had a remarkable career, and this wouldn't be a bad note to bow out on, but if he should change his mind and decide to make a few more movies, and maybe rob a few more banks, that wouldn't be such a bad thing, either.