A gripping survival story
GOING IN STYLE Direction: Zach Braff Actors: Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman Rating:
Time may have aged the three Oscar-winning veterans, but it hasn’t affected their comic timing.
A remake of the 1979 heist caper of the same name, Going In Style casts Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin together for the first time in their illustrious careers. They play lifelong buddies who get cheated out of their pension and decide to get even by robbing the bank responsible for their situation.
While the humour is sitcomlite, it’s the subtext of aged Americans struggling to survive in the face of corporate malfeasance gives the film a resonance.
The octogenarian geezers turn to every trick in the book to tickle the viewer’s funny bone. Among the more amusing situations is a dry run for the planned robbery, which involves shoplifting at the local grocery store. In addition to the once-in-a-lifetime leads, the rest of the elderly ensemble too manages to sustain a feeling of playful cheerfulness.
Ann-Margret — still impossibly beautiful — turns on her feminine wiles as the flirtatious grandmama. Going in Style may not rank alongside the classic comedy capers but it certainly provides a welcome change from the malarkey that seems to clog the multiplexes these days.