‘Going in Style’ Recycles Every Geriatric Joke Ever

The idea of aging gracefully is bullshit. Getting older sucks. At a certain point, each and every year brings a new set of challenges that are compounded by physical ailments. That’s a key reason why audiences like movies where aged stars acknowledge their own advancing age, and by proxy their own mortality. Therein lies the appeal of Going in Style, the Zach Braff directed remake of the 1979 Martin Brest film where a trio of senior citizens stage a bank robbery. It’s an inoffensive film where Braff brings his crowd-pleasing sitcom sensibilities to the forefront as we’re treated to 90 minutes with great actors who lend a sense a credibility to the absurdity of the film’s over-reliance on regressive geriatric gags as they prepare to rob a bank.

Going in Style has a populist heart behind it. The opening scene involves Joe (Michael Caine) confronting his local banker (Josh Pais) about his overdrawn account and escalating interest rate on his mortgage. This discussion, which is not going well for Joe, is broken up when a trio of masked bandits invade in the bank, pulling off a daring robbery of incredible precision. Joe regales his friends, both of whom worked at the same steel mill with Joe for 30 years, Willie (Morgan Freeman) and Albert (Alan Arkin) with the details of the daring heist he’s witnessed. All three senior citizens are in for a rude awakening when they learn that the company that worked for is moving all operations overseas and that includes abandoning their pension obligations, effectively robbing the three men of their retirement plans. They then learn that their pension fund is being paid to their bank, the same bank that put Joe in a risky mortgage that threatens the home he shares with his daughter (Maria Dizzia) and granddaughter (Joey King). These events inspire Joe to plan a heist of his own with his friends. They’ll rob what is owed to them from the bank that is out to take their piece of the pie.

Then there’s an array of subplots in Theodore Melfi’s screenplay, including medical issues for Morgan Freeman’s Willie and Alan Arkin’s Albert being chased by Ann-Margret despite the cantankerous character’s desires to avoid relationships. And for all the film’s populism about the sticking it to the institutions that have betrayed so many people, nothing is said as to why Ann-Margret’s character works seven days a week in supermarket. The trio of would-be senior bandits train for the impending heist after meeting Jesus (John Ortiz), a pet store worker that they meet from Joe’s ex-son-in-law Murphy (Peter Serafinowicz), who Joe is also coaching into being a better father. Always hovering around the proceedings is Christopher Lloyd as Milton, a character that serves no purpose other than being a generic geriatric joke machine, always wild-eyed and confused.

Going in Style has a number of mildly entertaining moments that simply rooted in the novelty of these older stars doing things that only a younger person should be doing. Probably the most amusing moment of the film comes when Joe, Willie, and Albert decide to do a trial run for their heist by shoplifting in their local supermarket. Their ineptitude presents plenty of comedic situations, yet Braff and Melfi just can’t find a rhythm to this scene and it slowly become tiresome as its devolves into a generic chase scene with the Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman attempting a getaway in one of the supermarket’s motorized carts. Then again, Going in Style is a movie that really thinks it’s funny to have a scene where the characters light up a joint. It’s as if Zach Braff is proclaiming, “Old people smoking weed is so funny!”

There is absolutely no subtext to the populist messaging of Going in Style. Everything that’s on the mind of this film is explicitly said and repeated in case anyone missed the message of how society’s institutions have failed its senior citizens. The explicit nature of the film’s themes speak to the film’s larger issues with its comedic imagination. Going is Style is a comedy where the joke is just old people doing things that aren’t expected of them and that’s it. Old people aren’t supposed to rob banks. Old people aren’t supposed to have sex. Old people aren’t supposed to smoke weed. And that’s what Zach Braff considers to be the comedic root of the film’s story. In case you missed any of that, there are more than enough characters willing to explicitly lay it out for you repeatedly.

Going in Style is an inoffensive, unimaginative comedy that coasts on the charms of its leading trio while leaning heavily on broad comedic sitcom tropes. It’s a mildly entertaining movie that works best as slight diversion, working at brisk pace without much a purpose behind it.