This film was perfectly paced to tell the short but true story of an 80 year old WWII veteran and horticulturist's time as a drug mule for the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. In reality Leo Sharp smuggled more than a ton of Cocaine into Michigan for $1.25 million and was sentenced to three years in prison, after being caught by the DEA, of which he served one year.
In the film, the real Leo Sharp is named Earl Stone and is portrayed by Clint Eastwood himself, who additionally both directed and produced this project. (Also, One of Eastwood's real life daughters starred as his daughter in the film.). Earl is a day lily horticulturist whose business suffers to the point where his home and farm are being foreclosed on, due to his unwillingness to keep up with the times by way of the internet. By chance he meets a young man who offers him a job delivering a package across state lines at his granddaughter's engagement party, which he jumps at in order to make money to help pay for her wedding and save face with his estranged family.
The film really makes a compelling argument for how he gets started in the business and an even more compelling argument for how he got away with it. As an older gentleman people would never guess that he would be involved and in fact even though the DEA gets pointed right to him and the motel he is staying at...they completely overlook this elderly war veteran.
This was slow paced, but heartfelt and emotional. I think fans of good cinematography will enjoy it, fans of Clint Eastwood will love it and fans of good story telling should watch it. It was nice to see Clint Eastwood starring in this film and playing a character of a similar age.
