“The Mule” is an underwhelming film based on an incredible article written by the New York Times.
Earl Stone, played by Clint Eastwood, is a 90-year-old Korean War veteran and horticulturist (flower grower). Stone becomes estranged from his family after choosing his profession of growing daylilies over his wife and daughter.
The film opens with Stone surprising his granddaughter at her engagement celebration and his infuriated family finding out he has lost his home due to foreclosure and that he is now broke. Before this moment in the movie, it felt as though Eastwood had no purpose. He walked aimlessly and was unable to communicate with viewers what his point on screen was.
He encounters one of his granddaughter’s friends who, unbeknownst to Stone, is a drug mule ‘scout.’ Stone is the perfect candidate to become a mule because of his age and because he has never received a driving ticket.
In desperate need of money, Stone agrees to transport packages; unbeknownst to him, the packages are filled with cocaine, and he was now a drug ‘mule’ for a Mexican drug cartel.
Although the plot of “The Mule” sounds interesting, the execution is by far from great. Viewers are given the exhilaration of watching an old man drive at 50 mph without a ticket or an accident. There is minimal conflict, and one is left without the intense quality that audience members were anticipating. All the movie ends up being is an elderly man driving around with unknown things in his truck. Even at the end, when Stone gets caught by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the sequence of events was so eventful, that I almost fell asleep. The ending was simply a beaten up Stone exiting from his car and entering into police custody.
“The Mule” was so disappointing that on multiple occasions, I considered leaving the theater. Unless you want to be lulled to sleep or extremely bored, watching “Narcos” would be a better use of your time.
