The Mule (2018)

This doesn't seem to have been talked about much since it was brand new. If any aspect stands out, it's the fact that Clint Eastwood has made only one feature since, and that one bombed, whereas TM was reported halfway decent. I chose to watch it largely because it looked different from a bunch of my most recent viewings.

Earl (Eastwood), despite an illustrious ongoing career in horticulture, is hurting for money. At the advice of a "friend of a friend," he gets a shady job transporting bags he's advised not to open. I'm not sure how soon he realizes that his employer is a drug cartel, but he gets surprised at just how much they're entrusting to him. Elderly Anglos with no record even of parking violations make unlikely suspects, so he becomes an MVP, with a lot more comfort than certain other mules. But not everyone in the business is willing to accommodate an employee who doesn't follow strict rules, and one sass to the wrong guy could put him in a trunk. Meanwhile, two DEA agents (Bradley Cooper and Michael Peña) are closing in with help from a reluctant informant (Eugene Cordero), albeit too gradually for the patience of their supervisor (Laurence Fishburne).

Note that Earl's been absent from so many important family occasions that most of his relatives don't want to see him anymore. His excuse of working hard to provide for them doesn't fly, and his generous donations of drug money mean more to the veteran community than to kin. When his wife (Dianne Wiest) is terminally ill, he can't very well convince anyone that he has a good reason not to take time off.

This makes one of the few Eastwood roles I know in which his character is not supposed to be cool at all. The closest he comes is in not showing fear to a man pointing a gun at him, supposedly because he got used to that in the Korean War. At age 90 (OK, Eastwood was slightly younger than Earl at the time), he never engages in violence or even impressive trickery. He seems slow to learn, and not just with mobile phones.

I learned later that the story is based loosely on the true one of Leo Earl Sharp, Sr., who died during the filmmaking. That would explain why events on screen are so credible. And simple. And bland for most of the 116 minutes.

The R rating comes primarily from a couple of mercifully brief prostitution scenes and frequent swearing in English and Spanish, the latter not always subtitled. I should mention that Earl knows a fair bit of Spanish and isn't above dropping a few slurs. In retrospect, maybe I should be glad that Martin Scorsese wasn't directing.

My opinion of TM matches its overall reception: neither bad nor great. The story isn't apt to shape your view of anything, nor are you likely to feel strong emotions during it. It just is.