Old Man
Veteran character actor Stephen Lang is the best part of this feature that should've been a short or a play.
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Lucky McKee was arguably the indie horror director du jour of the aughts and early 2010s with movies such as “May,” “The Woods,” “Red” and “The Woman.”
Stephen Lang is one of our better and more underrated actors IMHO. Whether it’s as Freddy Lounds in “Manhunter,” the Party Crasher in “The Hard Way,” Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett in “Gettysburg,” Ike Clanton in “Tombstone,” Gen. Stonewall Jackson in “Gods and Generals,” Charles Winstead in “Public Enemies” (he easily stole this movie from the likes of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale), Col. Miles Quaritch in “Avatar” or The Blind Man in “Don’t Breathe” and “Don’t Breathe 2,” the dude’s never been anything less than hugely watchable.
I was excited to see these two pair up for the psychological thriller “Old Man” (now available in select theaters including Noblesville, Ind.’s Emagine Noblesville and on VOD), but the only real excitement warranted was for Lang’s performance and a coupla tasty bon mots courtesy of rookie screenwriter Joel Veach. (My favorites were, “Sometimes the f*cking you get ain’t worth the f*cking you receive” and “You don’t smoke and you don’t chew and you don’t go with girls that do” – both deliciously delivered by Lang.)
Lang is our titular Old Man. He lives alone in a cabin in the woods. One day his routine of getting drunk on moonshine is disturbed by Joe (Marc Senter – this cat looks like the love child of Mike D from the Beastie Boys and Zac Efron), a hiker who’s gotten lost in the forest.
The Old Man doesn’t take kindly to the interruption, sticks a shotgun barrel in Joe’s face and inquires whether he’s been sent by the codger’s wife. He also tells Joe about a similar disturbance involving a bible salesman (Patch Darragh) as an intimidation tactic. Turns out the Old Man isn’t the only one with marital woes as Joe escaped out into nature after a tiff with his wife Genie (Liana Wright-Mark).
“Old Man” is mostly a two-hander that could’ve – and probably should’ve – been a play as opposed to a movie. (It likely would’ve also benefitted from being a short as opposed to a feature.) Veach’s dialogue often leaves our characters talking in circles and the repetitiousness grows tiresome. There is a twist that’s not altogether disinteresting, but it doesn’t warrant the film’s 97-minute runtime. Senter brings an interesting, anxious energy to the part of Joe, but is largely overshadowed by Lang, who admittedly has a far showier role.
I can’t in good conscience recommend “Old Man” unless of course you like me are a Lang fan and completest. He’s much better than the movie itself. Better luck next time, Lucky.