Broke, alone and facing foreclosure on his business, 90-year-old horticulturist Earl Stone takes a job as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel. His immediate success leads to easy money and a larger shipment that soon draws the attention of hard-charging DEA agent Colin Bates. When Earl's past mistakes start to weigh heavily on his conscience, he must decide whether to right those wrongs before law enforcement and cartel thugs catch up to him.
Without a doubt, whether you love him or hate him, Clint Eastwood is definitely one of the most iconic figures in film. Eastwood's ability to keep directing movies at nearly 90 years of age is just astonishing, especially at this level. I must be honest, I've been waiting for this film for quite a while now. Since I saw the adverts for this film I've been really interested in this film and that interest spanned throughout the duration of the film too. The Mule is essentially a story of an old man who turns to drug smuggling for a Mexican drug cartel, the film follows his journey from small scale drug runs to multi million dollar runs. This film was really unique in the plot choice, the character models and the overall execution of the film and definitely helped to add a variety of different things into the film. Here are my thoughts.
The starting scene in this film really helped to establish the characters in the film early and very quickly, they were presented in a way which really helped to set the mood for the rest of the film, this then gave us a much better perspective of why different events happened and their purposes throughout the rest of the film too. I also really liked how we were introduced to them all straight away, the film really cleverly used this starting sequence to shape the various characters and their relationships for the remainder of the film. The film also transitioned between time and location very well, by starting the film in 2005 and then transitioning to 2017, it gave us a really exciting perspective into how Earl Stone's family, relationship and his general life had gone really far downhill which helped to add in a sense of authenticity and realism to the character because not even 10 minutes into the film we had seen how Earl's life had drastically changed. And like I said, these events of seeing him broke and driving around with his possessions in his truck allowed further scenes to have much more meaning and purpose to them. One of the best things I liked about this film was the plot, not only was it something a little bit different and unique, but it was also presented in a really simple and straightforward manner which I really liked because it just ensured that we were kept engaged with the film throughout. The film did this really cleverly, by using lots of really exciting and random developments in the story, it kept the audience always guessing and really engaged and excited about what was happening in the film. Usually in films, when there are lots of switches and changes then it can ruin the impact and enjoyable element of the film as it makes the plot difficult to keep up with, but it had exactly the opposite effect here. It was stitched together really well which meant that it was unpredictable, as well as really thrilling and exciting to watch without having to worry about plot holes or why something happened because it was straightforward. The best part of the plot though was the close calls, not only did these help us to sympathies with Earl but they also made key scenes in the film really exciting and nervy, for example Earl being pulled over by the police when his truck was filled with drugs. These types of scenes were prominent but really effective and helped us to be able to engage with the film well because they were simply so unpredictable, we just had no idea of whether he would be caught or how close he would come to slipping and letting on of his job and that just made the film all the more interesting to watch! These scenes were supported by the great choice of dialogue as well, not only did the range of English/Spanish help to add a sense of culture and identity to the Mexican Cartel but the forceful nature and the ways in which they spoke to Earl with more respect throughout the film helped to really personify their moods and the relationships that the various characters shared. Not only did it help to support the relationships of the film though but it also strengthened character identity, for example the subtle racism from Earl in the film to a young black family indicated that his character model was old and out of touch with modern ideologies and society, as opposed to the Mexican cartels who were fiercely violent and demanding. The awesome selection of dialogue not only helped to personify emotions and moods but also to create a sense of personal identity to the various characters and groups within the film.
Speaking of emotions, there were a variety in this film which were key to ensuring that it was an all round entertaining and thrilling film. The film uses various emotions such as thrill, sadness and nervousness to really help to focus on the emotions and various character relationships in the film. Sure, the film mainly contained thrilling scenes that were also nervy, but emotional scenes such as his ex wifes funeral and seeing him miss his Daughter's wedding were key to adding in empathy and emotion into the film to help really make the characters in the film seem genuine and relatable. Not only were they useful but the variety of emotional scenes were also very well executed, seeing his ex wife on her Deathbed and them laughing together seemed to personify the mood and attitude that he had towards work throughout the film and needless to say, they were really effective. I was also really impressed with the character models and the acting within this film, both of which were key to the success and 'enjoyability' factor that the film has, not only did the characters seem entertaining but they were also unique, each individual character was completely different to the other characters in the film and this really helped to give them each an identity and a set of traits. But the characters were interesting too and their underlying meanings and ideologies were clearly executed, for example seeing Earl going from the bottom to being invited to parties in cartel mansions was really powerful because we had seen him as a character develop and this strongly contributed to the identity feeling that each character had in this film which I loved. Another really important factor of this film I enjoyed was the fact that it felt experimental which is a risky move as it either really pays off or it ruins a film, in this film it really paid off. The blatant attempts to go into a new direction and push the boundaries of film were really effective and cleverly shown here, and that is due to Mr Clint Eastwood. The choices of cinematography, lighting and ambience all seem to develop slowly throughout the film and he's in no hurry to tell his story. But that's what makes him such a great storyteller. The film really pushes the imagination of how a story can be told and the emotional impacts that life and work/family life can have on people. We are privy to comparisons of his choices of work over family. Eastwood seems to have no regret or recollection of his daughters wedding whilst receiving an award for his prized lilies. He continues to be the "Mule" knowing all too well the consequences of his actions. The way in which the story was told and boundaries pushed mean that this film definitely continues the great start to film that 2019 deserves!
No film is perfect though and this film had a few problems, firstly as with most films, one of the key issues related to stating events and characters not being explained enough as these were some really key scenes and themes for the film. But as we were thrown straight into Earl's life I feel that some of these key themes were missed out which could have helped the film to hit the ground running. I was also a little bit disappointed with the police chase element of this film, don't get me wrong, I loved how it switched to show multiple perspectives of Earl working and the police hunting him down but it just didn't feel realistic and believable enough for me. Seeing Earl dive out of the waffle house in a black pickup truck surely would have alerted the police officer, as well as Earl surprisingly not getting a new pickup truck after his was blacklisted. In this sense, some of the actions that the characters took didn't feel genuine and strongly supported at all which was a shame and at some points frustrating because it held the film back from having a really fast faced set of scenes between Earl and the police. These scenes were generally fairly lengthy which slowed down the intensity of the film.
One major flaw that ruined the ending of the film for me. Are we to feel sorry for him at the end? Are we to admire him for pleading guilty? This scene in the court felt as if it should be really powerful and strong but it just didn't really have any meaning, it might have floated over my head but I wasn't sure why he just admitted to being guilty instead of trying for a lesser sentence. To me, this scene was a little disappointing and felt 'overhyped' which was a shame because there was definitely potential to end this film strongly but it just felt a little bit disappointing. Even though the film presented Earl as a desperate and lonely old man, some of his choices weren't very well explained, for example. The backstory as to why he became a drug mule was fairly weak and definitely not explained in enough depth, he just started doing it, and the fact that he didn't realize that he was transporting drugs until the third or fourth trip was difficult to believe too.
Overall, I would give this film an 8. I feel that the character models and relationships were ace, the film really cleverly presented the various characters and relationships which helped to give them all identity. The plot of the film was also really interesting and presented in a way that left me feeling a variety of emotions and these were really effectively used so that they popped up but they didn't distract us from the excitement of his journeys and the chase from the police. This film has it's issues though, mainly surrounding establishment of why things were done and the emotion behind them, the confusion surrounding this prevented some key scenes from really hitting home and having their intended impact. Would I recommend this film? Definitely, it's a really good film and if you don't look into the film too much then it's definitely a great watch. Many may argue that the film's plot is too slow but I feel that this was a crucial element to maintaining tension and entertainment throughout the film and I also feel it was very well done. So yes, I would definitely recommend this film.
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did watching the film. I hope you have a lovely day! :)
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