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Friday, February 1, 2013

by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        FOLLOW                                            TWEET
Friday, February 1, 2013

Fisher Stevens directs “Stand Up Guys”, a quiet, affectionate tale of Val (Al Pacino), a petty criminal who has just emerged from a 28-year prison sentence in Los Angeles.  Val’s number has been up for a while and crime boss Claphands (Mark Margolis) wants him killed for erasing his son in a prior hit.  Val’s longtime buddy and partner in crime Doc (Christopher Walken) has to erase his dear friend at Claphands' behest.

Mr. Stevens’ film is dominated by the silent sorrows of Mr. Walken, whose eyes are filled with remorse and regret.  Doc is quavering criminal who presides gently, a compassionate man wrestling with conflict.  Mr. Walken, who forms the film’s emotional undercurrent, is the wellspring for an unexpectedly moving experience, one which the director renders genuinely if not always smoothly.

The film’s pedestrian pace is slowed further by unnecessary scenes featuring two female characters, either fantasy projections (Vanessa Ferlito) or objects of desire (Lucy Punch, as a madam running a prostitution business.)  The old codgers either defend their honor or enter their boudoir.  The women characters themselves have little to do, although Julianna Margulies is a presence (if a slightly awkward one) as a doctor who happens to be the daughter of Hirsch (Alan Arkin), Val and Doc’s getaway driver.  A touching element to the comic drama is Alex (Addison Timlin), a waitress whose smarts and charisma add a softness and polite manner. 

These scenes are padding for a film which needs none; stripped to the bone “Stand Up Guys” bides its time and needs little distraction.  The film is about facing the twilight years on your own terms rather than someone else’s.  Sometimes Mr. Fisher’s film seems to wait around for something to happen.  On other occasions “Stand Up Guys” wallows proudly in its faded retro glory, skirting by on fancy and reckless abandon.  The film is ill-fitting, conforming to its lead senior characters who are out of place in a 21^st century that has passed them by, although when it comes to exercising old habits their muscle memory doesn't let them down.

There’s fleeting sentimental value in Mr. Pacino’s Val, a wearier, seeing-eyed edition of the actor’s Oscar-winning Frank Slade character from “Scent Of A Woman” (in one scene in Mr. Fisher’s film Val asks for a dance with a young lady.)  We never see who Val kills, only the suspense of inevitability surrounding his character.  Val is sharp, tired and long-since devoid of incorrectness. 

Curiously, much of the blunt, adventurous middle of “Stand Up Guys” is at odds with its warmer and tender start and finish – and Noah Haidle’s screen dialogue feels stiff at times when spoken by the three main men.  There are odd moments of tone shifting that betray Doc’s character.  The tie-in with Claphands, who is in four small scenes, is thin, and “Stand Up Guys” invests in fulfilling the wishes of grumpy, dirty old men that somehow haven’t learned how to leave the stage gracefully. 

After one month of movies 2013 is already the year of the graying male set: Arnold, Sly, Al, Christopher and Alan: come on down, the price is right.

Also with: Katheryn Winnick, Yorgo Constantine, Weroniki Rosati, Courtney Rosato, Lauriane Gilliéron.

"Stand Up Guys" opened today across the U.S. and Canada.  The film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for language, sexual content, violence and brief drug use.  The film's running time is one hour and 36 minutes.  

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