The new film “The Mule” is about a story that were it not true, the overall experience would not be as believable or as good as this movie is. Clint Eastwood both stars and directed this movie and one of his best in recent years, and a good comeback from the bad “The 15:17 to Paris” released in February. It is amazing to see Eastwood still going strong at age 88 and I am sure if anyone asked him how he feels about being 88 years old he would say that “he is too busy to care”.

The Mule is about money and what a 90 year old World War 2 Veteran Earl Stone does to keep his house from being foreclosed on. To get a new truck for himself and to survive another day. By chance he becomes a mule, smuggling drugs from Mexico to Indiana and at first it seems a simple job where he does what he is told and at the end of the trip he collects a great deal of money. Over time the value of the cargo he is carrying grows exponentially as does the danger he puts himself in. What everybody finds out eventually when they deal with criminals and murders who smuggle drugs, is that eventually you will get yourself into a great deal of trouble and if you one day want to walk away, you cant, they will just kill you. The side story of Stone’s wife, played by Dianne Wiest I thought was very well done and showed how Earl Stone ignored his family most of his life, concentrating instead on plants because of his job as of all things, a horticulturist.

I thought the acting throughout this movie was very good, including Andy Garcia as the drug kingpin in Mexico and Bradley Cooper as the DEA Agent. Unfortunately, the Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are an anemic 63%, which surprises me because I give this movie a solid 80%. I do recommend The Mule.