Rating: 1/5 stars
Clint Eastwood has been directing films since his 1971 debut “Play Misty for Me.” His latest, “The 15:17 to Paris,” certainly does not give any indication that he is getting better.
The film follows the lives of Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone as they grow up, express their views on war and, finally, one day on a trip through Europe, stop a gunman from threatening the lives of the passengers of a train on its way to Paris. From reading the TIME magazine article “The True Story Behind the Movie The 15:17 to Paris,” most of what leads up to the event, which took place on Aug. 21, 2015, is historically accurate.
The problem is nothing is done to make the buildup to the event interesting in the slightest. Everything is presented without a hint of natural progression or smooth transition to the next stage of these men’s lives. The film even opens as the gunman is attacking the passengers on the train and the men notice what is going on, then flashes back to when they were children. In fact, as the film continues, it flashes forward to the event at least twice in the film seemingly for no purpose. This directorial choice does not reveal any more of the men’s inner psychology. It all goes to show that there was nothing in the film to get excited about, especially if one goes into it having seen the trailer beforehand. These desperate attempts to remind audiences of what is coming and kills the anticipation, increasing the bore factor.
Aside from poor storytelling choices, two other significant areas where the film suffers are the dialogue and performances. Both aspects come together to form one point: almost nobody in the film seems like a real person. Sadler, Skarlatos and Stone should all be given a pass because they are essentially reliving real events in their lives. In that case, how to “act” would not necessarily be the right question. Nearly everyone else is terrible, though.
The kids playing the three men are probably the worst, and it only goes to show how hard it can be to find kids with actual acting talent (case in point, Dafne Keen’s incredible film debut in “Logan” last year). The actors playing their Catholic school teachers do not fare much better. Whereas with the kids, it did not seem like they knew what they were doing, these adult actors seem to be exaggerating their characters, playing them up to be as stereotyped as possible.
Aside from some lines being absolutely cringe-worthy, there are many lines that do nothing but play up the military as the coolest thing about the United States. A lot of this dialogue makes these people seem unlikeable, which is probably the biggest problem of the film. In fact, a scene in Stone’s room, when he is a kid, shows a poster for “Full Metal Jacket.” No wonder he and his friends are so hyped up about joining the military and getting into combat.
To top off this intricate recipe for terrible dialogue is the sheer lack of subtlety in the film’s main message about being destined for something bigger than oneself and choosing whether to act. The way in which most of these instances play out, similar to the progression of the story, does not feel natural.
Image from Warner Bros. Pictures via YouTube.com
