This spy thriller pits the Oscar winner against John Lithgow in a surprisingly brutal, often gripping tale of deception.
If you ever scroll through the on - demandaction movieofferings on iTunes or a similar Robert William Service , it can feel like there ’s an arms wash going on between Hollywood ’s senesce male stars . Though the genre has always been open to grizzled champion willing to take their lumps , the release of the Liam Neeson pa - breaks - risky thrillerTakenin 2008 and militarized super - acquaintance squad - upThe Expendablesin 2010 signaled a larger shift in the " picture show about cat beckon guns around " market place . Across different budget degree , and with varying creative results , over-60 actors like Neeson , Mel Gibson , Sylvester Stallone , Arnold Schwarzenegger , Jean - Claude Van Damme , and Dolph Lundgren remain to pump out movies that often take out them in for one last job . ( There ’s a precious name for the ones they barely show up in : the " geezer tease . " ) Even actors not exactly sleep together for running dull - question from explosion or choking out henchmen have heeded the call .
Though it arrives in prestige tv set packaging — adapted from a novel , pilot lead by an A - lister , and anchored around a star best be intimate for feature film film work — The Old Man , FX ’s Modern undercover agent thriller starring Jeff Bridges as a now - retired CIA wiz who has to go on the run , is n’t that different in concept or premise from a number of VOD action title . The climactic fight of the first sequence , which finds Bridges deploy a John Wick - ian band of forcible maneuvers , is cautiously frame by film director Jon Watts ( Spider - Man : Far From plate ) in the one - take style that ’s become increasingly on drift in action filmmaking that prizes technical virtuosity over more traditional shot styles . You fare out from it exhausted on Bridges ’s behalf : It would plausibly be easier for the Oscar winner to play a conniving billionaire or a doting grandpa . Instead , he ’s bleeding out in the grunge .
Based on a 2017 thriller by veteran writer Thomas Perry , The Old Mantakes time to build out its populace before deliver the Bridges rhythm - downs . The 72 - year - old star plays Dan Chase , a blue-blooded retired person who recently lost his married woman , speaks often to his girl on the phone , and cares for two too precious dogs . Watts and the show ’s Colorado - Creator , Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine , weaponize the rude fondness and soulfulness of Bridges : There are few actors who can fetch a sense of inner - heartsease and tranquility with the same informality . His pace , his ability to hear , and his pleasing stillness propose a man who can sense comfortable anywhere . After all , this is The Dude . But , like with many of the in force roles Bridges has played over the years , Dan Chase deploy that placidity to embrace up a more complicated story .
Prashant Gupta/FX
The intricacies of that story , which involves a lifetime of intelligence body of work and a shady serial of missionary station in Afghanistan in the ' fourscore , get slowly teased out in flashbacks and in conversations with slenderly cantankerous , occasionally tender FBI director Harold Harper , played with a somber touch by John Lithgow . The specifics of why Chase is now getting hunt by the organization that trained him are some of the least compelling parts of this show . If you ’ve seen FX ’s ownThe Americans , Homeland , or24 , the more white - knuckle joint precursor to so many innovative TV action thrillers , then the cloak - and - dagger espionage material will find familiar . " You have no musical theme how different the plot is from the last metre you played it , " say Lithgow ’s Harper to Chase at one point . Judging from the first four episode made available for review , the plot he ’s referring to remains about as full of dissembling , ego , and professional competition as you ’d require .
On some degree , The Old Manfeels keenly cognisant of its limitations . sagely , the serial publication leans into the skill and seemliness of its cast , which also includes Amy Brenneman ( The Leftovers ) and Alia Shawkat ( Search Party ) in pivotal roles that grow more complicated as the show progresses . Scenes that might fiddle as exposition - dumps in a more streamlined film or a established net shoot - mutton quad - up are give infinite and sentence to permit the performers find refinement , humor , and personality in the writing . That can make some pacing takings as you expect for the inevitable twist and turn of events , but that patience also provides Bridges and Lithgow plenty of room to progress these lineament out , humanizing their unethical actions and educe the sense of loss that comes with burying your identity for decades in service to an indifferent institution . Even as it ponders questions of decease and mortality , emphasizing the creaky bone of its battered agonist , The Old Manmoves like it has all the prison term in the globe .
Prashant Gupta/FX
