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The 15:17 to Paris Cannoli Send a noteboard - 14/02/2018 12:41:35 AM

Don't. Just don't.

"The 15:17 to Paris" is the story of an incident in 2015 in which a gunman with an assault rifle boarded a train to Paris and was subdued by several of the passengers. The movie was directed by Clint Eastwood, and written by a first-time screenwriter, which does not surprise me in the least. The quality of the film is more what you would expect of the writer's level of experience, rather than Eastwood's demonstrated ability. Compounding this issue is that the passengers who subdued the gunman play themselves as well. They are much better train passengers than actors.

Structurally, the film is similar to Eastwood's "Sully", in that the relatively short duration of the defining incident means much of the film is spent exploring the characters of the heroes. And there really isn't much there. The three main characters were in their early 20s, and the other two don't appear in the film until the attack. Alex Skarlatos Anthony Sadler & Spencer Stone met in junior high, where they were often in trouble and butting heads with teachers and school authorities over minor behavioral issues. Skarlatos & Stone eventually joined the military, the former the army, and served in Afghanistan and the latter the Air Force. During leave for both of them, they backpack through Europe together & invite Sadler to join them, which put them on the eponymous train.

As heroic as their actions may have been in real life, they were unfortunately not very cinematic. Compared to Liam Neeson running around subduing criminals and outwitting conspirators, three fit and healthy young men, two of whom are specifically combat-trained, wrestling a single inept gunman into submission, is just not as impressive on the screen. And that's the best part. To get to that, we have to endure their childhoods and Stone's military training. The mothers of Stone & Skarlatos are played by Judy Greer & Jenna Fischer, respectively, and both actresses seem uncomfortable with their dialogue when called upon to express their characters' religious convictions, which are not well-written or tremendously inspiring, even from the point of view of someone predisposed to respect such. Their performances, and Thomas Lennon's as the principal of the Christian school the boys attend, seem as stilted as bad strawman characters in an anti-Christian sketch show.

Meanwhile, Stone, unfortunately, was the "most" heroic in his actions on the train, taking the most injuries, being the first to grab the gunman and giving first aid to another wounded volunteer. This is unfortunate, because it means he has the biggest role in the film, and is the worst actor of the trio. Skarlatos & Sadler are not much better, but they seem more natural with their characters. We watch Stone failing at his preferred military specialties for most of the second act, while getting only two scenes of Skarlatos patrolling in Afghanistan, one of which is spent in his bunk Skyping with Stone. Sadler only shows up from time to time to hang out with Stone until he joins him in Europe, where we get to watch them touring Italy, flirting with fellow tourists and then going to a club with Skarlatos, which makes them seem like the most awkward party-goers in history, or Rome & Venice and the German club scene are just really boring the second time around. There's some attempt to show Stone's qualities of persistence and how despite his failure to make the cut as an elite fighting man, he still demonstrated heroism and made an important contribution, and some discussion of the role of fate or a divine plan, as they very nearly allowed themselves to be dissuaded from taking a train to Paris, based on disappointing reports from other tourists, but it just isn't put together well, and the actors don't have the charisma to pull it off.

Cannoli
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*
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The 15:17 to Paris - 14/02/2018 12:41:35 AM 152 Views

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