Earl (Clint Eastwood) is an older man who has a passion for working with flowers. As the world of internet grows, Earl’s flower business becomes no more and shuts down. To make matters worse, Earl becomes disconnected from his family, including his ex-wife, daughter and his granddaughter. Earl at one point is so caught up in his own life; he forgets his own daughter’s wedding! With Earl’s family not wanting to have anything to do with him and with Earl losing his business, Earl becomes desperate. He is approached by a young man who offers him money to drive unknown packages across the country. Earl accepts and becomes a drug “Mule”.

As far as the character Earl goes, I do have a few minor issues. As the viewer, we don’t know a great deal about his past other than he is a Korean War veteran. While he was becoming a Drug Mule, I was wondering if the character knew what he was getting himself into or perhaps if he was simply an unwise older man. Despite this, I enjoyed the of lack filter Earl had when it came to interacting with others around him. Naturally, this is where the old school Eastwood does best with script and dialogue. But I can’t be harsh on Eastwood here. Clint Eastwood once again serves as Director, Producer and leading actor in this film. It’s fairly impressive to see the man giving such hard work to screen in today’s world of cinema. This reminds the audience that age is just a number.

Along with Eastwood on screen, we also have the actor Bradley Cooper who plays Agent Colin Banks, a character who is investigating the gangs and trying to locate the Mule himself. Whenever Bradly Cooper appeared, I enjoyed his performance, and I kind of wished he was leading the film and not Eastwood. The film also introduced us to side characters which are then forgotten and never seen again, which left me questioning ‘what was the point of that?’

Overall, while it’s impressive to see Clint Eastwood still acting and directing at full speed ahead, sadly this isn’t one of my favourite films. The leading character makes odd choices and his motives I found slightly unclear at times. As a story, I found myself at times unmotivated to invest high interest based on the directions the film decided to take, ending in slow results. Somewhat enjoyable sure, but I could help desiring more from this film which was inspired by an accurate tale about a drug mule.

5.9/10

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Review Written by Peter Walkden