The film tries hard to be a caper flick but somehow there's something missing. It's made along the same lines as 1979's "Going in Style" and it's 2017 remake, but those films had well known American actors you could count on for good doses of geriatric humor. This one adds a twelve year old 'stupid' genius to the mix, a socially inept pre-teen (Gil Blank) who's out to avenge the death of his father by teaming up with the grandfather (Sasson Gabai) he never knew, ditto a British uncle (Patrick Stewart), and the grandfather's best friend (Moni Moshonov) from their underground days before Israel became a country. You're talking pretty old here, it's surprising in some scenes that these guys could still stand up. Stewart is a pleasant surprise though, as he carries on with the females at the nursing home with festive song and dance, a side to the actor that I haven't seen before. He was pretty entertaining. The bank job they attempt to pull off goes through a number of permutations in the planning, which we witness as flashback or flash forward scenes as the story unfolds. Though the title of the film doesn't have much bearing to the story for the most part, it's later explained that because the Jerusalem bank the quartet are robbing generally carries only twenty to thirty thousand shekels on hand, that it can be considered a 'white elephant'. Checking the math on that, it translates to about $5,700 - $8,500 American dollars, not a whole lot to get excited about, or even take care of Jonathan's mom (Yaël Abecassis) for any length of time, the original premise for planning the heist. Personally, I was surprised that Jonathan managed to stay on track once he found out his mother was carrying on with the bank manager. Talk about a rude awakening.
Review of Hunting Elephants
