Review of "The Old Man," a suspenseful action thriller starring Jeff Bridges as a fugitive from the FBI
One of the most interesting series of the summer, an intriguing crime drama about past secrets, double lives and survival.
Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) lives an unremarkable life in the company of two Rottweilers. He often remembers his wife (Hiam Abbass), who died because of Huntington's disease, and calls on his adult daughter, Emily. Overnight, the carefree retirement comes to an end--the widower notices that he seems to be being watched. The next night it becomes clear that there is every reason for paranoia: an armed man breaks into the house. Dan quickly deals with the uninvited guest, throws a bunch of passports, a couple of wads of dollars and a small arsenal of weapons into his bag, and then he leaves the provincial town. At this time, Harold Harper (John Lithgow), a big shot in the FBI and Dan's old acquaintance, is torn away from family gatherings - he is told that the secret service has reopened the case 30 years ago. In the 1980s, during the Afghan War, a top-notch agent escaped with a scandal - they finally found him.
The confusingly named The Old Man is a benefit for Jeff Bridges, a Hollywood titan who hasn't appeared on the big screens in four years and even more on the small ones. True, it's not exactly the typical prestige TV that modern TV series with a cast of first-rate actors would be considered to be. Perhaps this is how it was originally conceived, but during its creation it was transformed into something quite different. The fact that somewhere in the middle of the shooting process - the fall of 2020 - Jeff Bridges announced that he was diagnosed with lymphoma, and during chemotherapy, the actor in addition picked up coronavirus.
Bridges recently admitted that he was close to death, but was able to pull through, recover and finish filming. Therefore, "The Old Man" is impossible to watch without some naive joy, gratitude for the fact that the great actor is still with us. In addition, this effect is enhanced when Bridges' battered and exhausted character refuses to give up and gets up time after time to give battle.
"The Old Man" is precisely a series about coming back and trying to regain his former form. It is this clumsiness and sluggishness of the main character, who has lived half his life without spy adventures, that sets the show apart from the list of similar projects with a similar plot. No way - just look at "Death Row," which came out in early July, in which a young Chris Pratt as an army man confronts the intelligence agencies, unmistakably scattering dozens of killers.
Dan Chase is not another reincarnation of John Wick, so he can mess around with the occasional mercenary in the kitchen for a few minutes and then escape thanks to his faithful dogs. It looks, however, much more dynamic than it sounds. In addition, Bridges is such a charismatic actor that even his verbal skirmishes look tenser than most of the modern (mostly implausible and one-shot) action scenes: "You send more people - I'll send them in body bags. Strong.
Past FX Channel projects - "The Americans," "Justice," "Sons of Anarchy," "Fargo" - come to mind as we watch. "The Old Man" is a series of the same type: also a slow-moving crime drama devoid of postmodern twists, which could have aired in the mid-2010s. What makes this film truly modern (or, more accurately, up to modern standards) is not the bloated budget and special effects of a Hollywood blockbuster, but... the elongated running time. This is the main scourge of the current industry, because it is vital for streaming companies to keep the viewer in front of the screen longer in order to count the number of minutes watched later.
And "The Old Man" would have benefited if the episodes had gone at least 50 minutes instead of 65. It's not about speeding up the pace or momentum - believe me, it's a pleasure to watch scenes devoid of suspense, where Bridges is making breakfast or sitting in a restaurant. The series is at least overloaded with unnecessary Afghan flashbacks--with a young version of Dan Chase not unlike Bridges. The prickly feeling that the rather short story is being artificially stretched was confirmed by the recent news: the project, wilted in mini-series format, will return with a second season.
I don't want to pass judgment on "The Old Man" because of an extension - who knows, maybe in the new episodes the creators will risk moving away from the cat-and-mouse game between the hero and the FBI. Yes, and it's too early to think about it. For now, we can only hope that the series doesn't lower the bar high. "The Old Man" probably won't make the top of the year or win anything in the upcoming awards season, but right now it's one of the most interesting series of the season. There's an intriguing and mystery-filled plot about an escape from the past, a half-dozen great actors (Lithgow and Alia Shokat deserve special praise), conducted by Jeff Bridges, and realistic, inventively shot action. There is also a place for "Scrubs"-style fantasies, though, in which the hero does not run away from reality but, on the contrary, shows the viewer that he would actually go as far as to kill an innocent man for his own gain. As they say, not everything is so unambiguous.
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