(Israel/USA, 107 min.)
Dir. Reshef Levi, Writ. Reshef Levi, Regev Levi
Starring: Sasson Gagai, Moni Moshonov,
Patrick Stewart, Gil Blank, Yaël Abecassis.
They say an elephant never forgets, but the reputation of
the elderly flows in the opposite direction. Memory is a funny thing. The three
old cards in Hunting Elephants, which
opens the Canadian Film Institute’s 11th annual Israeli Film
Festival on June 8th, have more wrinkles than most elephants do, but
they haven’t forgotten how to put on a good show. This fun, light-hearted crime
comedy is a geriatric caper in the vein of RED,
but like the machine gun toting’ Helen Mirren pic, Hunting Elephants sees some grey-haired grifters with a few tricks
stashed away in their trunks, so this consistently delightful film should
please viewers young and old.
There’s actually a diverse range of ages in the team of unlikely bank robbers in Hunting Elephants. The mastermind behind the plan is thirteen-year-old Jonathan (Gil Blank), who plots revenge on the bank after his father passes away on the job and the pen pushers refuse to pay up on his life insurance and pension. Jonathan hatches the plan with his grandfather Eliyahu (Sasson Gagai) and his grandfather’s partner-in-crime Nick (Moni Moshonov), both of whom are former members of the underground, and a bank robbery sounds like the perfect escape from the boring old retirement home.
The fourth wheel of the team—and arguably its dramatic
flair—is Jonathan’s estranged uncle Michael (Patrick Stewart), a hack actor
living in London who flees his spotty production of a Star Wars themed Hamlet
when news of a death in the family brings him sniffing for inheritance. Stewart
reportedly stepped in when John Cleese became unavailable, and his theatrical
strait-lacedness probably serves Michael better than Cleese’s broader silliness
might have. Michael, a dandy, prefers to go by his full name and title of Lord
Michael Simpson, and Stewart provides a fine air of ponce to clash humorously
with the mix of old school crotchetiness and dirty-old-man vibe from Eliyahu and
Nick, respectively.
Director/co-writer Reshef Levi keeps the action light and
lively, but he also intercuts the film with elements of mockumentary to keep
the audience guessing. Interviews with various secondary characters are
interspersed throughout the film in which the witnesses to the bank robbery
give their own versions of the events that unfold in the primary narrative.
Things don’t always match up in the perspectives and the conceit plays on both
the potential senility of the three elephants and their elusive memories, as
well as on the legitimacy of recorded narratives versus those captured only
with experience. The occasional cut to a present-day interview reframes the
caper as an action in the past, so Hunting
Elephants plays on the viewers’ expectations that the revisit to the events
means that the bank robbery resulted in either a roaring success or a colossal failure.
Either outcome seems feasible given the foibles that ensue during the merry
band’s preparations. The more Hunting
Elephants puts the audience in suspense, the more it portrays the robbers
as a band of likable underdogs one wants to see rob from the rich.
The jovial camaraderie of the four actors ensures that Hunting Elephants is briskly paced
escapism. This is a fun crowd-pleaser to be sure, but it’s also a smart and
engaging fish-out-of-water tale about enjoying life to the fullest in the face
of aging. As Jonathan plans most of the technical specs of the operation, the
three veterans each contribute their own expertise and life experience to fill
in for his deceased father. Advice on going for the girl and such gives the
whole team a boost of confidence, for Michael’s own bashfulness around girls
fits right in with the hound dogs of the retirement home who line up for a show
whenever the resident sexy nurse, Sigi (Rotem Zussman), gives the comatose
patients a sponge bath. Viagra jokes are thus inevitable, but Hunting Elephants spends much more time
having fun with the old timers than it does making jokes at their expense.
Hunting Elephants
also thrives on the self-deprecating humour that lets the veteran actors have
fun in their age appropriate roles. Eliayhu, Nick, and Lord Michael Simpson all
poke fun at their geriatric shortcomings, and Gagai, Moshonov, and Stewart are
clearly having a ball giving the three men one last hurrah. The humour of Hunting Elephants is a mix of graceful
aging and a mix of defiance. The balance is consistently appealing and puts age
before beauty in this entertaining romp.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Hunting Elephants screens at the Israeli Film Festival on June 8
at 7:00 pm at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St.
Please visit www.cfi-icf.ca for more information.
Update: Hunting Elephants screens in Ottawa at The Mayfair beginning June 5, 2015.
Update: Hunting Elephants screens in Ottawa at The Mayfair beginning June 5, 2015.