Going in Style
Short description
Willie Davis, Joe Harding and Albert Garner are lifelong friends living on modest pensions in New York. When the fund that supplied their retirement income is wiped out in a corporate maneuver, the three men find themselves unable to cover their bills or keep the promises they made to the people who depend on them. Having spent their lives playing by the rules, they decide to break them once, targeting the bank they hold responsible for their losses. With help from a few unlikely accomplices, they work out how to take back what they feel was taken from them.
Zach Braff directed the film, his third feature after Garden State and Wish I Was Here, from a screenplay by Theodore Melfi. Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin head the cast as the three friends, with Ann-Margret, John Ortiz and Peter Serafinowicz in supporting roles. The production, made for a budget of about 25 million dollars, went on to earn roughly 85 million dollars worldwide, a solid return on its cost.
Audience reaction was warmer than that of professional reviewers. On IMDb the film holds 6.6 out of 10 from around 99,000 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 6.7 from a much smaller pool of just over 3,000 ratings. A film critics' rating stands at 5.4 from 171 reviews, so viewers have generally been kinder to it than critics were.
What's left behind the scenes
- Negotiations to direct were held with Don Scardino, but were unsuccessful. Then similar negotiations took place with Ted Melfi, but ultimately Melfi became the screenwriter.
- Initially, Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were involved in producing the film alongside New Line Cinema, but these two companies later withdrew from the project.
- A remake of Martin Brest’s 1979 comedy 'Going in Style,' which starred George Burns (1896-1996), Art Carney (1918-2003), and Lee Strasberg (1901-1982).
- Willie, Joe, and Albert go to the same restaurant visited by the characters of Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta in Martin Scorsese’s crime drama 'Goodfellas' (1990).
- The evening before the robbery, Willy and Joe are watching Sidney Lumet's film "Dog Day Afternoon" on television, in which Al Pacino's character also robs a bank.
- During the bank robbery, the characters played by Michael Caine, Alan Arkin, and Morgan Freeman wear masks of singers and actors Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. All of them belonged to the so-called "Rat Pack" (a team of show business figures from the 1950s and 1960s) and starred in Lewis Milestone's film "Ocean's Eleven" (1960).
- The film's world premiere coincides with director Zach Braff's birthday—April 6th.
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