Oddly enough, in recent memory I have watched three films relating to old people engaging in questionable behavior.  Two of them have starred Morgan Freeman, and two have featured criminal activity.  I label them all as “questionable” though because the one that does not involve the law, The Bucket List (2007), has the two main characters engaging in thrill seeking.  I suppose crime can also be seen in this light, but today’s feature, Going in Style (2017), has one key line in it that makes it somewhat tolerable.  In the middle of a bank robbery, one of our protagonists is told that it is a culture’s duty to take care of the elderly.  That is a sentiment a Catholic can get behind, and something the Church has been doing for centuries.

The one thing that Joe Harding (Michael Caine) is behind on at the start of Going in Style is his mortgage.  As a retired factory worker who is also supporting his nurse daughter, Rachel Harding (Maria Dizzia), and granddaughter, Brooklyn Harding (Joey King), he relies on his limited pension.  However, his bank has tripled the monthly rate, something they had assured him would not happen when he took it.  As he argues with an employee, Chuck Lofton (Josh Pais), about the unfairness of his situation, armed men enter the financial institution and make off with cases full of cash.  This is the incident referenced in the introduction.  Following the robbery, Joe is interviewed by Special Agent Arlen Hamer (Matt Dillon) of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).  Joe notes the neck tattoo of the robber with whom he spoke, but otherwise his suggestions are dismissed.  What is also going away is his pension.  The company with whom he worked announces that they are moving their operations overseas and that they will no longer be paying the retirement funds.  Joe is not the only one affected.  His two best friends, Willie Davis (Morgan Freeman) and Albert “Al” Garner (Alan Arkin) were employed by the same outfit.  Al and Willie live together, but they are also in financial straits.  Not long thereafter, Joe gets the notice that his house is in foreclosure.  Out of desperation, he proposes to Al and Willie that they get into the theft business.  Willie, who is also dealing with a kidney problem and is need of a transplant, is more open to the suggestion.  Al is less so, but Joe persists in convincing his reluctant friend and eventually prevails.  Still, they do not go straight for banks.  Instead, they decide to go after a grocery store as a warm up, shoplifting items they claim they need to make chicken cordon bleu.  Al is designated as the getaway driver and told to stay in the car.  Instead, he gets impatient and walks inside where he is distracted by Annie Santori (Ann-Margret), a woman who is romantically interested in Al despite his repeated refusals.  Joe and Willie are also not subtle, and all three are caught.  Sitting down in front of Keith Schonfield (Kenan Thompson), the store manager, they are told to try some other endeavor.  It looks like their wayward ways are over until Al finally gives in to Annie’s advances and finds that he suddenly needs more money than he realized.  Realizing they need some expert advice, Joe seeks out his former son-in-law, Peter Murphy (Peter Serafinowicz), who runs a dispensary.  Joe figures Peter for a low-life, and Joe believes such people should know others who might have insights into stealing money.  It brings our three to Jesús Garcia (John Ortiz), who agrees to train the three aged gentlemen in how to get away with a heist in excahge for a cut.  Their timing does not quite get to the ideal target, but it is enough for them to proceed.  Their cover is to volunteer at a local festival being put on by their club, the Knights of Hudson.  This Catholic was confused when I first saw the hall in which they met because it looks like it is intended to be a Knights of Columbus building.  I guess the famous Catholic charitable organization did not give the filmmakers permission to use their name?  At any rate, with a large crowd of people in which to be identified and blend in, they eventually slip away to pull their planned job on the same institution from the beginning of the movie.  For the most part, everything goes smoothly until Willie helps retrieve a doll for a little girl named Lucy (Annabelle Chow).  While doing so, he has a pain that causes him to stumble and for her to notice his special watch, a gift from his friends with a picture of his granddaughter on it.  However, what gets them arrested is Keith noticing the surveillance footage of the robbery on the news and seeing similarities between the gait of one of the perpetrators and Al despite the masks they wore.  During questioning, once more performed by Special Agent Hamer, they are each able to provide alibis backed by a few witnesses.  Still, the FBI believe they possess one last tactic by having a wheelchair lineup put before Lucy.  She comes to Willie, sees his watch, but says that she does not recognize any of them.  As such, the three friends have gotten away with their heist.  Now free, Joe meets with Jesús, who reveals that he had been the robber from the beginning, and thus refuses to take his cut.  Following this, Al donates a kidney to Willie, and all three are together for Al’s marriage to Annie, which concludes our story.

The donation of a kidney in Going in Style is not the only thing given away at the end.  One of the stipulations on which the three friends agreed before carrying out their crime is that they are going to disperse any extra cash to those they think need it.  It is a kind gesture, but this Catholic must point out that it is tainted by the fact that it is stolen.  The film wants you to sympathize with them because they are only taking what they feel they are owed, which had been pilfered from them by a rotten corporation.  I am angered by the actions of their former employers in reneging on their pensions, but as the old saying goes, two wrongs do not make a right.  A Biblical way of putting this can be found in Romans 12:17, which says, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.”  The argument can be made that these men are not really evil.  Their charity at the end and Willie’s actions in the bank suggest that is the case.  Further, the Catholic teaching is that nobody is completely ruined by sin.  Everyone is redeemable because that is how Jesus saw us.  At the same time, Peter makes the argument against their actions when he points out to Joe that there is another way of going about overcoming difficulties.  Any devoted Christian would agree with this sentiment.  It is such a stark sign of our frailty that we get into these modes where we believe that there is only one means of redress for our problems, and that we have the power to do so.  Everything we have is a grace from God, no matter how insignificant it might seem.  Though Peter is not directly referencing God, I feel his advice is in the same spirit.

All the same, my spirit for Going in Style is pretty neutral.  There is some good, some bad, but none of it stands out as being moving in any way.  It is not too offensive either, just pretty vanilla all around.