A wrinkle in crime

On the list of the best caper movies, the clever and funny Dirty Rotten Scoundrels sits near the top. The 1988 hit starring Michael Caine works in part because it doesn’t whitewash its characters’ chicanery. But the new heist flick Going in Style, also starring Caine, hands over its wallet to the wealth-redistribution agenda setters, and they rob the film of much of its fun.

In this remake of a 1979 movie by the same name, Caine plays Joe, a steel company retiree. Joe and two former co-workers, his best friends Willie (Morgan Freeman) and Albert (Alan Arkin), face hardships when the steel company freezes pensions to pay off its debts. Joe hatches a plan to stick up the bank handling the company’s finances—though only for the amount of money the three stand to lose.

To rationalize its rallying cry that “everyone deserves a piece of the pie” regardless of how they get it, the film spends its capital portraying the system’s victims with extra sympathy: Joe gets an eviction notice, Willie will die without a kidney transplant, and relationships with granddaughters could evaporate. The film mixes in a righteous message: “It’s a culture’s duty to take care of its elderly.” But Joe, Willie, and Albert never seek legitimate assistance. Feeling cheated, they turn directly to crime.

Going in Style (rated PG-13 for drug content, language, and some suggestive material) does have its entertaining moments. The robbery goes haywire, but an elaborate cover-up might get the heisters off. The veteran actors play up their elderly selves, as when Joe, early in the film, hypes the octogenarians’ maturity as an asset to pull off the holdup.

“We have skills, experience,” Joe points out.

“And arthritis, gout, and shingles,” Willie groans.

But the movie hits rock bottom when, near the finale, it sends an unmistakable message that young people are expected to aid and abet what duplicitous schemes their elders may concoct.