Review: The 15:17 To Paris

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Much like his previous film, "Sully," director Clint Eastwood's latest picture takes a real-life event and depicts it in an intense 15-minute sequence - and then builds an entire film around it with mostly filler. In the case of both films, the reenactment of the event itself is the strongest moment. Just as the airplane crash in "Sully" - which was a better movie, despite some lags - was that film's best sequence, the thwarted terrorist attack on a train in "The 15:17 to Paris" is the finest moment in Eastwood's latest.

It is unfortunate that the rest of the film is so wildly uneven. Eastwood made the daring choice of mostly using non-actors - including the three men who thwarted the attack, playing themselves - and the results are scattershot, if I'm being generous. It doesn't make me pleased to say that the scenes in which the three men are portrayed as kids are particularly hammy, while the latter scenes in which the men re-enact not only the attack on the train, but also their basic training in the military and a European vacation that preceded the attack, feel like unnecessary filler.

The film's earliest scenes are among the weakest in Eastwood's filmography as a director. We meet Alek, Spencer and Anthony - who grow up to be National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, Airman First Class Spencer Stone and college student Anthony Sadler, all played by themselves as adults - as rambunctious kids in California. All three of the boys are obsessed - as many little boys are - with war and weapons, and we often see them playing war games in the woods.

None of the boys fare well at school, and there is an oddly unpleasant anti-teacher sentiment running through the early scenes. All of the teachers at the boys' schools are tyrants. There's a particularly bungled scene during which Spencer and Alek's mothers confront a teacher who wants them to medicate their children, and Spencer's mom (played by Judy Greer) lectures the teacher on how her God has the answers, not the teacher. In recent years, Eastwood has thrown the occasional red meat to red state viewers, but this scene played particularly false.

Another problem with the film is its frequent "on the nose" approach to dialogue. In an early scene, Alek's mother tells him that she foresees some "excitement" in his future, plus a greater purpose. Once Spencer, Alek and Anthony are on their European trip - which culminates in the sequence on the train to Paris - they often discuss their fate as if they knew it ahead of time. Spencer mentions more than once that he believes the three of them are "being catapulted" toward something and, for good measure or in case you'd forgotten, Anthony brings it up again later and they engage in a discussion on the matter. Some of the film's faults are redeemed during the intense and powerful scene on the train, during which the three men save passengers from a terrorist, and are then give much deserved recognition for their courage during a ceremony in France.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Eastwood was on a streak. During the past 15 years, he has made "Mystic River," "Million Dollar Baby," "Flags Of Our Fathers," "Letters from Iwo Jima," the underrated "Changeling," "Gran Torino" and the misunderstood "American Sniper," which is not - as some might have you believe - a pro-war movie. His last few films have shown some signs of slowing. "Jersey Boys" was amusing, but a standard musical. "Sully" featured an incredible plane crash scene and a solid Tom Hanks performance, but it felt stretched out.

"The 15:17 to Paris" is the director's weakest film of the century so far and one of his lesser efforts among the 30-plus movies that he has directed. Eastwood will be 88 years old this year. Does he have another film in him? I sure hope so. And I hope it's better than this well-intentioned, but not particularly well executed, one.