“This story, also, is mostly true,” reads the title card at the beginning of David Lowery’s film, as if we’ve just joined a folksy storyteller mid-session. Robert Redford plays a gentlemanly septuagenarian bank robber circa 1981 who calls himself Bob but is really Forrest Tucker. He meets effervescent widow Jewel (Sissy Spacek), to whom he confesses his identity, while a cop (Casey Affleck) takes an interest in the case. Adapting a magazine article by David Grann, Lowery doesn’t treat Forrest and his cohorts (Danny Glover and Tom Waits) like hardened criminals, nor is he interested in making a “heist” movie. Glover and Waits aren’t given much to do, which is a shame, while Affleck plays a low-stakes version of a hard-boiled cop with a grudge. If this is Redford’s final role, it’s a fitting, smiling swan song with gentle reminders of some of his past work. When Forrest tells Jewel he’s never ridden a horse, we assume he’s lying—not because Forrest is untruthful, but because Forrest is also Robert Redford. The casting adds a satisfying additional dimension to an already humorous, amiable story.
By
Eric D. Snider