‘THE MULE’ IS A KICK
Eastwood’s drug-courier drama is his best film in a decade.
The Mule (out of 4) Starring Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Pena, Dianne Wiest, Alison Eastwood, Andy Garcia and Ignacio Serricchio. Written by Nick Schenk. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Opens Friday at theatres everywhere. 116 minutes. 14A
Clint Eastwood’s new movie, The Mule, which he directs and stars in, works a floral metaphor harder than the obvious equine one — and the meaning of it actually plays better in reverse.
His character, Earl Stone, soon to acquire a risky new job as a drug courier, is a horticulturalist in Peoria, Ill., who grows award-winning day lilies. These brightly coloured flowers are worthy of special love and attention, Earl tells another character, because they “just bloom one day and that’s the end of it.”
No one could ever call Eastwood a one- day bloomer. His 63-year career is loaded with hit movies plus multiple Oscars and other kudos. He’s been in constant flower, and it’s gratifying to see that, at age 88, he can still make films that matter with characters of heart and soul.
The Mule is one such movie, his best since Gran Torino in 2008. It’s no accident that screenwriter Nick Schenk worked on both pictures, which both see Eastwood portraying a Korean War veteran — and in each case, a man trying to figure out the modern world.
Eastwood’s Earl in The Mule, based on a true story, is a lot less cranky than his Walt Kowalski character from Gran To
rino. But he’s just as good at getting himself into trouble.
Earl, a vigorous 90, was an absentee husband to ex-wife Mary (Dianne Wiest) and their daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood, Clint’s real daughter).
He spent more time on the road than at home, missing family milestones that stretched from the baptism of Iris to, now, her wedding.
The truck-driving skills Earl acquired while in motion come in handy, however, when the internet kills his flower business and he’s suddenly on the verge of also losing his house through bank foreclosure. A chance meeting with an accomplice of a Mexican drug cartel lands Earl a lucrative job driving a load of cocaine in his battered pickup from Texas to Illinois.
He accepts the gig warily at first, insisting it’s a one-off. But then easy money starts rolling in.
He buys himself a spanking new black truck, retires a few debts and becomes financial saviour to struggling Peoria institutions.
Earl will keep rolling, and we have every reason to keep watching. He’s a rascal and maybe a scoundrel, but he’s also dependable (as a driver), resourceful and above suspicion — who’d suspect a 90-year-old war vet as a drug runner?
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) might, but it will take agents shrewdly played by Bradley Cooper and Michael Pena, with Laurence Fishburne as their boss, a little while to pull clues together and formulate an action plan.
In the meantime, we have Clint playing Clint with a great deal of humour (some of it unPC) but also some pain, as he demonstrates to members of the cartel (led by an avuncular Andy Garcia) and also law-enforcement types that there’s more going on under that baseball cap and behind that weathered face than meets the eye.
Eastwood’s Earl isn’t really one for long-range thinking — “I’ve never been a ‘Plan B’ kind of guy,” he says — but he knows how to enjoy life. This includes singing tunes like Dean Martin’s “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head,” as he drives along one of the many highways that function as one of the film’s other metaphors: a man’s restless quest for meaning and connection in an increasingly illogical and divided America.
The Dino tune makes for one of the film’s most amusing scenes, as the two cartel enforcers following Earl, and electronically eavesdropping on him, find themselves singing along even though they’re trying so hard to be tough.
Unheralded by pundits and almost ignored by studio Warner Bros., The Mule butts headfirst into the holiday movie season, and maybe even the Oscar race, with a layered story and performance that beckon to be seen. And imagine that Eastwood, at 88, can still play characters who are older than him. Ain’t that a kick in the head?