Term Life concerns Nick Barrow (Vince Vaughn), a man who makes his living planning heists and selling his schemes to those willing to take the risk. He has a teenage daughter, Cate (Hailee Steinfeld), who he only supports from afar. A reunion is made necessary by a heist that he planned that leaves the thieves dead. It so happens that the father of one of the thieves is a powerful member of a Mexican cartel. They threaten Nick and his daughter, and so Nick picks up Cate, who isn't very happy to see him, and hides out with her while he tries to figure out what went wrong.
In another era of cinema, Term Life would have been film noir, the kind of a tale of tough people in tough positions where no one really gets out clean. But this is an age that has little tolerance for grimness, and so the story of a criminal who gets on the wrong side of bigger criminals is softened by a subplot concerning him learning to get along with his daughter. A story that involves brutal drug cartels and crooked cops gives way to scenes of father and daughter bonding, providing a path to a happy ending it doesn't really deserve.
The movie gets off to a rocky start with some flat narrative voiceover. Again, the film seems to be taking some of its cues from film noir, but it captures none of the sensibility or the flavor. From there, the film plays out its convoluted plot, slowly revealing the details of a conspiracy that aren't actually very interesting, which involves some corrupt cops, some stolen evidence, and a bunch of other things that hardly matter by the end. Because this isn’t really a story about how dangerous it is to traffic in a world of criminals. It is about how you can use criminality to bond with your daughter.
All the danger of the criminal enterprise gives way to cutesy scenes of Nick and Cate spending time with each other. There is a very long scene that has the two of them casing a bakery, Nick explaining his thought process to his daughter, and Cate slowly learning to appreciate what her father does. And in this moment, it’s pretty easy to forget that there are people out there that want to kill them. It’s actually pretty easy to forget that for most of the movie. This is a really inert film, the danger only rearing its ugly head when it’s time for the plot to move forward.
The film fails to wring tension out of any of its scenes, including ones where guns are being pointed. The direction is flat and lifeless, giving a real handicap to an overqualified cast. Vince Vaughn puts on a little more effort than he usually does, but this is actually a pretty thankless role. Hailee Steinfeld gives it everything she’s got, but the material has nothing for her. A supporting cast that features Bill Paxton, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard, Jonathan Banks and Jon Favreau are terrifically wasted on junk roles that could have been filled by anyone else.
Term Life is a waste of talent, a waste of concept, and a waste of time. It is an indictment of this current era of mainstream filmmaking, where there really isn’t a lot of room for distinctive pieces of work, where genre has to give way to a certain formulae. This is a film with a serious R-rated premise that turns into forgettable family entertainment because that’s ultimately easier to sell in various markets. In another age, it would have been enough for this film to tell its story. Now it has to be something else.
My Rating:
