Hell or High Water

The film begins with two brothers, Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner (Ben Foster), robbing a small-town branch of Midland National Bank, a minor bank chain in Texas.  Midland National Bank swindled their recently-deceased mother into getting a reverse mortgage and they have just foreclosed on the property.  The brothers have only a few days to come up with about $45,000 in order to keep the ranch.  Toby has devised an ingenious plan to rob enough branches of this corrupt and immoral bank to get the money to pay Midland back.  Tanner, an ex-convict, has robbed banks before and is the brawn of the operation. After a couple of partly-bungled, but still successful, robberies, an experienced Texas Ranger, Marcus (Jeff Bridges), and his partner, Alberto (Gil Birmingham), start out on their trail.  Marcus is about to retire and would like nothing more than one more arrest to punctuate his career. The movie has an interesting plot.  It moves at a leisurely pace, but consistently holds your interest.  The screenplay is well-written (Taylor Sheridan of "Sicario" - worth renting if you missed it).  There's also a fair amount of comic relief with Marcus teasing his half-Comanche partner and a scene in a diner with a crotchety old waitress.  Bridges is always good and Pine does a really fine job playing a man who is "light-years" away from Captain Kirk. It's not a "high-water" mark in filmmaking, but it's the best drama out in the theaters now and good enough to see on the BS.