"Hell or High Water" with Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and others. Takes place in West Texas, which I have driven through at least five times, depressed, desiccated, a wasteland more or less. Banks loaned money, charged egregious interest rates, people couldn't pay. This movie trails two brothers who are robbing banks for small takes, and it becomes apparent pretty quickly that they aren't just robbing the banks for fun. Well, for Tanner it is for fun. For Toby, it's for real.
It's been a while since I have seen a movie with such clearly drawn characters, four men with different personalities and yet with two agendas: rob banks and catch the bank robbers. The acting is superb, each actor fleshes out his character perfectly. There is a lot of dialogue and a great deal of it is very amusing in the first half of the movie. The audience laughs softly quite often. But the light-hearted tone goes black and things get serious.
The music is good, the scenery in West Texas is spare and the story is simple. But the best thing is these four men. As diverse as they are, they are all likable for so many different reasons. We all love Jeff Bridges, of course, and he is so good at being an old sheriff. But I haven't seen Chris Pine in anything other than on the cover of US magazine. He is Toby in this movie and Toby, for 95% of the movie, is like a hunted rabbit, head down, eyes small, face scared and immobile. It isn't until the very end of the movie that you see him with that gorgeous face. The transformation is huge and the reasons are clear.
If you like movies, see this one. No big explosions, a small car chase, nothing too violent. But you will want to chat about it when it ends. And the ending is perfect!
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