Author: Todd McCarthy / Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Clint Eastwood’s latest casts three real heroes who stopped a terrorist on a Paris-bound fast train in 2016 as the main actors in a story about ordinary people having greatness thrust upon them.
Is there a full-length feature film in the dramatic but blink-and-it’s-over incident of three young Americans subduing a heavily armed terrorist determined to kill as many people as possible on a Paris-bound fast train two years ago?
Unfortunately for Clint Eastwood’s latest, there really isn’t. The director’s risky decision to cast the three actual guys who pulled off the heroic act stands as the most novel and interesting aspect of the movie, which unfortunately is mostly comprised of banal, drama-free, quotidian scenes that merely reinforce the men’s status as regular Joes who, one day, had the opportunity for greatness thrust upon them. The one big commercial hope for The 15:17 to Paris (the very title of which may prove a bit confusing for the down-home crowd) lies in capturing a portion of the huge American Sniper audience, as the new film has patriotic and religious angles that may hold significant appeal for viewers across Middle and Southern America.Very much like Eastwood’s last film, Sully, which pulled in $240 million worldwide (but also had a big star in Tom Hanks), this one pivots on a dramatic real-life incident in which individuals’ competence and bravery come in handy in a transportation emergency to save a great many lives. The characters in question can simply say that they did what they were trained to do, but Eastwood is clearly most interested in the innate instincts of men who don’t freak out, have qualms or second thoughts; they’re just naturally wired to do the right thing and have the wherewithal to do so.
This is a genuinely appealing trait, albeit one that culturally is little-regarded currently, perhaps only as a World War II generation concept that became tarnished with Vietnam and all that came after. But Eastwood has lately tapped into it very effectively, finding the heroic in everyday people who, simply put, rise to the occasion.
Unfortunately, what does not rise to the occasion here is the screenplay by first-timer Dorothy Blyskal, which is based on the book authored by the three participants along with Jeffrey E. Stern. Virtually every sequence exists only to convey simple exposition; there are no internal dynamics, complexities, nuances, character revelations, left-field humor or, above all, dramatic conflicts within scenes. The storytelling consists of individual building blocks methodically placed, one at a time, next to or on top of others, on the road leading to the ultimate destination of the train, which is alluded to in several quick foreshadowing cuts to the heavily armed terrorist commencing his aggression.
The early-going is as simplistic as a comic book. Initial scenes have middle school pals Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos (kid actors William Jennings and Bryce Gheisar) getting into mild trouble at…
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