Those who love complex plots, but like simple stories hiding in the corners, this is for you.
Those who cherish brilliant punch lines spoken by small-part players and stars together, those who love great finales with classic fire play, and those who love three gold-plated icons: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin, this is for you.
And finally, those who smell the ink of the great Irish writer, Samuel Beckett, who gave the world “Waiting for Godot,” this is for you.
Watch for all of those things in director Fisher Stevens’ “Stand Up Guys.” It’s a film with colorful layers and doors that lead to secret places and the music that separate souls make when they form friendships. Thank writer Noah Haidle for that.
“Stand Up Guys,” is a big surprise for those who thought that Walken and Pacino had shot their last movie. They thought that of Harrison Ford and Michael Caine, and they’re still knocking at your door.
Here then, is what you’ll see.“Stand Up Guys” has been dismissed by some critics, because they’re not as smart as you.
The gates of a prison slide open and there he stands, Michael Corleone, Frank Serpico, Carlito Brigante, Tony Montana. But it’s Pacino we’ve come to see.
He is Valentine, who prefers Val.
He limps out of the fog of 28 years in prison, a term he served by refusing to name a partner in a robbery and shoot out, in which the son of a mob boss (Mark Margolis) was killed. This is the root of the story, and we get it all.
Val shuffles toward us to be greeted by the one friend he has left in the world, “Doc,” (Walken) who is here to welcome him back into the world, so changed in that 28 years as to be unrecognizable.
Val walks with careful steps, as though the outside asphalt is quicksand. He wears a shapeless prison suit and carries a small bag with the belongings the guards returned to him, stuff from his pockets 28 years ago.
Doc is there to guide his old friend through the urban minefield of the new century, partly out of loyalty and a piece of something called love. Watch Walken’s eyes — the memories, the deal, the love of ancient urban samurai are all there.
But we will learn that he’s there to perform a job, a last job, for the mob boss. He will spend the night and morning with Val, knowing he has to take him out.
Together, they walk the streets. There is a night club scene with a last slow dance with a 20-year-old that adds a much-needed sweet and sentimental moment that softens the edges.
There’s one more guy, that will be Hirsch (Arkin) who is in a nursing home.
Here is where the film starts moving at warp speed, ditches the formula and unwraps a Valentine to three old gangsters. They go to the nursing home.
“You’ve come to rescue me,” Arkin whispers.
There will be a stolen car, with a surprise in the trunk, and a classic high-speed ride in the night on the freeway going the wrong way, a visit to a brothel. It will take your breath away.
“Stand Up Guys” is not a great film, like the men who walk through it, it has flaws. But for those of you who have walked these years with these three actors, you’ll be glad you’re with them on this last morning. Lucky you.
J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
