David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water is a tense, funny crime film with unusually good company. Its four central performances make the familiar pursuit matter, though Taylor Sheridan’s script occasionally explains the hardship that the faces and places have already made clear.
Hell or High Water is a fine crime film that takes an interest in what people do between crimes. David Mackenzie gives the bank robberies their urgency, then allows conversations to last long enough for irritation, affection and worry to emerge. The contemporary West Texas setting matters because getting by is already difficult here, even before anyone starts breaking the law. The pursuit is familiar, but the people involved are good enough company to make us happy to follow it.
Toby Howard and Tanner Howard are brothers, and the film trusts that this brings obligations without making either man especially easy company. Chris Pine makes Toby Howard’s stake in the robberies feel personal before the plan is fully explained. Ben Foster supplies the friction, making their shared purpose feel liable to come apart in conversation. The affection survives disagreements that neither actor hurries to smooth over. We believe these men have been dealing with each other for years.
The pursuing rangers get as much attention, with Jeff Bridges playing Marcus Hamilton and Gil Birmingham playing Alberto Parker. We laughed at the insults, then felt a little sorry for the man delivering them. Jeff Bridges allows enough weariness into the performance to suggest someone who needs company but has forgotten how to ask for it. Gil Birmingham makes Alberto Parker’s patience feel finite, which keeps their exchanges from becoming a solo comedy routine.
Giles Nuttgens gives the bare West Texas landscape room to look uninviting, and the open country makes the people crossing it seem exposed. Tom Duffield’s production design gives the towns a worn, underfunded appearance that fits the resentment in the dialogue. The film notices that people still have business to conduct here, however little money there seems to be in it. Those surroundings help explain the anger at the banks without making the robberies seem harmless.
Jake Roberts keeps the pursuit moving while allowing room for the talk that makes it worth following. At 102 minutes, the film feels comfortably paced, with little sense of padding or a rush towards the next incident. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis supply music that strengthens the loneliness of the setting and makes the quieter stretches uneasy. The score helps the film stay tense even when nobody is doing much.
Taylor Sheridan occasionally pushes too hard to make sure the social point gets across, and the dialogue starts to sound rehearsed. Poverty and resentment are already visible in the towns and in the way these men treat each other; a further explanation can feel unnecessary. Some of the family history is a little too neatly fitted to the needs of the chase. These are noticeable faults, but the actors usually make the lines sound like something they have just thought to say.
As a modern Western, it finds plenty to do with a familiar pursuit, divided loyalties and men reluctant to admit how much they depend on one another. The danger has weight because David Mackenzie has given us time to enjoy their company, including the parts of it we would find tiresome across a table. There is little romance in its idea of the West, which suits people so short of choices. Choose it for an evening when the talk matters as much as the gunfire.
