Tom
Sawyer is no more likely to paint fences in 2015 than he was in 1876. He is
both cop and robber, but he really sees himself as a hero and a treasure
hunter. Unfortunately, his wild schemes inevitably cause trouble for his ex-con
best friend, Huckleberry Finn in Band of
Robbers (trailer
here), Aaron & Adam Nee’s modern day re-conception
of Twain’s beloved stories, which opens today in New York.
Finn
never squealed on Sawyer when he went up the river, even though it was his friend’s
fault. That allowed the gung-ho Sawyer to get a job as a patrolman, sort of
like his detective half-brother, Sid. When Finn is paroled, he quickly learns
Sawyer is still obsessed with the legendary Murrell’s gold. For some reason,
Sawyer thinks Injun Joe has stashed the pirate treasure in a pawnshop, so he
hatches a hair-brained armed robbery scheme to take it. Yes, he is still called
Injun Joe, but the Anglo villain has a politically correct defense of his
nickname at the ready.
Inconveniently,
Sawyer is assigned a new partner on the very day of the hold-up. Of course,
that would be Judge Thatcher’s daughter, Becky. Sawyer takes an immediate shine
to her, but she will complicate his plan to run interference for Finn and their
accomplices. Finn was supposed to pick up a day laborer to be their getaway
driver, but since their knucklehead friends over slept, he is forced to recruit
the Widow Douglas’s illegal gardener, Jorge JIMinez.
Band is just the sort
of movie that wears down your resistance over time. In many ways, the Nee
Brothers have quite cleverly modernized the grown-up (if not necessarily
mature) Twain characters and the source material that made them famous. However,
Tom Sawyer and Adam Nee (who plays him) try way, way, way too hard. Granted,
Sawyer is supposed to be recklessly enthusiastic, but he often brings to mind “Kung Fu” Eliott “White Lightning” Scott, which is a profoundly unfortunate place to
be.
On
the flipside, the reserved and somewhat embarrassed looking Kyle Gallner’s Finn
serves as an accessible and identifiable audience surrogate. He and Nee are like
oil and water, but they develop some pleasant bantering buddy chemistry.
Hannibal Buress also gets off some of the films better lines as Sawyer and Huck’s
dim-witted crony, Adam Rogers, while Stephen Lang adds some dependable
villainous seasoning as Injun Joe.
