The Mule Review

The Mule is loosely based on a unique true story about an elderly man who became a successful drug runner in the United States. It was a story that was able to convince Clint Eastwood to return to acting as well as directing.

Earl Stone (Eastwood) was a florist who has hit hard times in 2012. His business has gone bust and he is estranged from his family. Because of his desperation, Earl takes an offer to transport drugs from El Paso to Chicago. He soon becomes a valuable resource, leading to him becoming the focus of the attention of the Cartels and DEA.

The Mule sees Eastwood reunite with screenwriter Nick Schenk. Their previous made Gran Torino, a film that was marketed as Eastwood’s final acting performance. The Mule and Gran Torino have some thematic similarities – both focus on elderly men who have strained relations with their families, fallen on hard times, and end up involved with the criminal underworld. There are broad similarities because both films tell different types of stories.

The heart of The Mule is Eastwood and his performance. Eastwood was known for playing gruff characters but in The Mule his plays against type. Because of Eastwood’s advanced age, he had to play a more frail character who gets threatened and is hurt by the rejection of his daughter (Alison Eastwood). Eastwood’s Earl is also an amiable character – for all his life he had been a law-abiding citizen and his age makes him an unexpected mule. Earl is able to defuse most situations because of his friendly demeanour; this benefits him and people with him, not just Earl himself. Earl does say some politically incorrect things on his travels but there’s no is malice in what he says and he does get called out when he crosses a line.

The film also acts as a celebration of America. Earl gets to see the great land and meets various people such as a gang who call themselves ‘Dykes on Bikes.’ He developed a new philosophy where people just live their lives without worry because of his age and wasting his life on work which ruined his relationships.

Earl’s actions are morally questionable since he is transporting large amounts of drugs into a major American city. Drugs that cause a great deal of pain and misery. The Mule skirts around this by avoiding any on-screen drug use and Earl uses his money for mostly selfless reasons. He pays for his part for his granddaughter’s wedding and saves his own business and his friend’s. The Mule is basically a redemption story for Earl as he makes amends with his family. Yet this is a film where Eastwood somehow has two threesomes with much younger women – there is only one possible explanation about how this happened.

Whilst Eastwood and Schenk interest is in the drama of Earl’s life there was not enough to substance the runtime. The Mule has two major subplots. The first involved the DEA investigating the cartels with Agent Bates (Bradley Cooper) on the case. The other involved a power struggle within the cartels that could affect Earl and how he operates. But these subplots were tacked on that were only in place just to stretch out the run time and get some big-name actors like Bradley Cooper and Andy García. The DEA subplot disappeared for long periods to point that you can forget it’s even happening.

Despite Eastwood himself approaching the age of 90, he has not let up as a filmmaker. In fact he has become more prolific as he’s aged. He is almost churning them out like Uwe Boll.  And the quality of these films has varied. At best they are safe crowd-pleasers. The Mule falls into this safe camp and it can be described like a lot of Eastwood’s later films – workmanlike. The Mule is perfectly well made and functional, but it isn’t inventive. Eastwood is no longer the man who made High Plains Drifters, The Outlaw Josey Wales or Unforgiven.

In the stables of Eastwood’s filmography and the crime-drama genre as a whole, The Mule is a serviceable if unremarkable telling of an unbelievable story.