THE 15:17 TO PARIS (2018) ¢ ¢
D: Clint Eastwood
Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, Alex Skarlatos,
Ray Corasani, Judy Greer, Jenna Fischer
Clint Eastwood's leisurely topical thriller breaks down into three distinct parts. In the first act, three young boys who like to play war games and spend most of their time at school in the principal's office remain friends as they grow older, and two of them join the military. In act two, the boys, now in their 20s, meet up in Europe and see the sights. Act three finds them on a train bound for Paris from Amsterdam when a terrorist incident occurs and they become heroes. The movie is part propaganda piece, part travelogue, and (too briefly) part suspense drama. It's a recreation of actual events, and Eastwood took a risk by getting the main participants to play themselves. (His relaxed, less-is-more approach to filmmaking works in their favor.) But the script is pretty slack, especially that long stretch in the middle where you're really just watching other people having fun playing tourist. And there's a fourth hero on the train, a middle-aged man who helps out with a passenger who's been shot, but you never learn anything about him. He gets the Lègion d'Honneur at the end, too, but I'm not sure you even learn his name.
