150 Word Review: 'Old Henry' (2021)
Back in the saddle
If you ask me, “Tim Blake Nelson stars as a scrawny old farmer with a gunslinger’s past” is a great idea for a western. And director/writer Potsy Ponciroli’s Old Henry, a modest story about a widow and his son versus a posse of outlaws, is a very good western. It’s old-fashioned cowboy fun. At first, we see Nelson’s character through the eyes of his impatient teen son (a well-cast Gavin Lewis). But once Stephen Dorff’s evil sheriff Ketchum shows up with a bunch of bad guys, Nelson slowly reveals who old Henry’s true bad guy-killing self is. There are multiple showdowns, and a wounded stranger tests Henry’s newfound sense of justice and mercy.
The movie weakens, however, as secrets are teased and revealed, and those secrets strain credulity. Henry handling a pair of six-shooters as if he was born to blow-away banditos? Well, I buy that 100%. Nelson sells it.