The Mule

The Mule (2018)

Genre: Drama

Director: Clint Eastwood

Cast: Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Taissa Farmiga, Alison Eastwood, Michael Pena, Andy Garcia, Laurence Fishburne, Dianne Wiest, Ignacio Serricchio, Clifton Collins Jr., Robert LaSardo, Jill Flint, Manny Montana, Noel Gugliemi

Production: Warner Bros.

Clint Eastwood holds an undeniably unique position in the Hollywood firmament. He’s a singular talent whose 60+ years in film and television has garnered a bevy of acting and directing triumphs some of which go on the short list of the best the American film industry has to offer. The man has won four Oscars being among other things the face of spaghetti westerns, the torchbearer of revival westerns, the modern go-to drama director for gritty realism and ripped-from-the-headlines bravado, and a cultural icon for a certain kind of steadfast, rugged, individualistic masculinity.

Sweet tobacco infused masculinity...

At 88-years-old the man shows no sign of slowing down either. He’s made two films over the past year, one of which, 15:17 to Paris (2018) was an audacious personal project and filmic experiment that spat in the face of conventional wisdom, while also casually leaning into Eastwood’s public persona - one of the few members of Hollywood royalty that can get away with exploring expressly conservative themes. It didn’t turn out very well. 

In fairness, not everything the man has done is great...

Thankfully The Mule did turn out well. It is in fact an old-fashioned and genteel crime drama inspired by the fascinating story of an elderly veteran who briefly worked for the Sinaloa drug cartel. Eastwood himself plays Earl Stone, a down on his luck horticulturalist who has alienated nearly everyone in his life including his estranged daughter (played by Clint’s real life daughter Alison Eastwood). At the risk of foreclosure on his house and farm, Earl takes a job running drugs from El Paso to Chicago all the while invading the DEA and local law enforcement. Because of his avuncular demeanor, Earl soon gets a reputation as a reliable mule which only sinks him further into danger.

Now when I say old-fashioned, I mean it largely as a compliment. What could have been done as a tense or violent or brooding exercise in anti-hero mimicry, The Mule instead opts for the moral clarity of a grandma telling the kids to stop playing in the streets. Earl to this film is an otherwise likeable human being whose bad choices stem from a singular character flaw – that of him not appreciating his family as much as he should. In a pivotal scene where Earl opines that he wasn’t a good father or husband, the daughter responds “you’re just a late bloomer,” as if to telegraph the moral of our cautionary tale.

If viewed through the lens of a modern fable, The Mule is a fine if staid success. Even when the script repeats information and details, the inclusion of Bradley Cooper, Michael Pena and Laurence Fishburne as a gaggle of DEA agents and Andy Garcia as a gregarious drug kingpin makes it all easier to swallow. Cooper especially shows he has great instincts, slipping in depth and character motivations within a scene that even the screenwriter might have not picked up on.

Unfortunately some of the things that make their way into Eastwood’s lesser films also sneak into this one to wreck some minor havoc. For one, Eastwood has a way of playing off racial and gendered micro-aggressions as a quirk of personality rather than an opportunity for social commentary. Equal time, consideration and sympathy are given to Earl when he casually drops words like beaner and negro as is given to the receivers of said epithets. That mixed with the whole “old man b***hes about kids today” and Earl’s inability to use a cell phone makes it seem like the film wants to put everyone on equal footing. That’s not a completely bad impulse, but when you have a racist cop using the wrong instincts to reach the right conclusion, while in the same movie make a latino motorist sound foolish for citing police stop statistics, it becomes clear the script doesn’t exactly know how to broach such issues.

On the whole however, The Mule still largely works from beginning to end due to an anchoring performance by Eastwood, solid characterization by supporting actors Cooper and Garcia and the scripts ability to achieve most of its modest goals. While nowhere near such classics as Unforgiven (1992) or Million Dollar Baby (2004), The Mule nevertheless feels like the work of a master. Or at the very least the work of someone who knows that they’re doing.

Final Grade: C