Robert Pattinson has been a guy that has been in the wrong spotlight, and it is not his fault, because of the Twilight movies and also another bad movie called Remember Me and Cosmpolis, terrible movies. However, there has not been a role that has quite fit him until now. I think that even though that this maybe one of the most overlooked movies of 2017, I think this movie may feature Pattinson's best performance to date.
Connie and Nicky (Robert Pattinson and Nicky Safdie) are brothers who perform bank robberies. But, they are not as perfect because Nicky is a mentally disabled man who had a somewhat strained past with his grandmother. After a therapy session, they initiate a robbery by stealing $65,000. However, after they and a getaway driver retrieve the money, they open the page which releases red smoke from a dye pack, causing the driver to crash. Connie and Nicky get out of the car and go on by foot. However, after a stand-off between themselves and two officers, Connie evades the officers but Nicky gets arrested.
Connie goes to his bail bondsman but he would need $10,000 to get Nicky out. He tries to get help from his friend, Cory (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to get money but they are unable to use her Mom's credit cards. Connie gets the word that Nicky has been hospitalized. When in the hospital, after the officer walks away from the hospital room, Connie breaks in to the hospital room, breaks the cuff and wheels his brother, Nicky, out. But, later, as he dyes his hair blonde and becomes inconspicuous, Nicky discovers that did not break Ricky out, but an inmate named Ray (Buddy Durress), from a previous incident. It is now a race against time to see if Connie can get his brother out of prison.
Anyway, this movie is a very good and very suspenseful crime drama that focuses more on character than on the plot itself as the main character is in one situation after another but trying to save an innocent life. We focus on Connie for the majority of film as he has to make up his poor decision-making skills by manipulating his way to get past the authorities and trying to get the money to bail his brother out. His brother is his foil to his dark life. This movie reminded me of two directors' styles of Michael Mann and Sidney Lumet, which definitely parallels Heist and Dog Day Afternoon, with such a darkly comedic tone that you gets involved with the story and the characters.
Like I said in the beginning of the review, this is Robert Pattinson's best performance ever as a character who inhabits himself in a world of trouble that sometimes he does not want to let someone else take the fall. There is some inner humanity in his soul. Jennifer Jason Leigh, in a brief role, is tense in a scene where she has to fight with her mother to get money from the bail bondsman. Ben Safdie shines as the mentally unstable brother as you feel sorry for him. And, it is great to see Barkhad Abdi again in a small role after the success of his Oscar-nominated performance in Captain Phillips.
The Safdie brothers directed this movie with such style but I admire that they focus more on the characters than the story because even though you want to stage an intervention for Pattinson's character, you have sympathy for him. The camerawork gets out of hand at time with the shaky-cam, however, the brooding cinematography by Sean Price Williams and the music, reminiscent of Tangerine Dream, gives that edginess to the movie to drive the story around. And, also, it has a very solid ending that is not as predictable as it might have seemed. Good Time is polished with such inspiration from the gritty 70s and 80 films that it feels like a throwback thanks to its style, story and a fantastic performance.
***1/2
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