Prison films can take many forms. Some, like The Shawshank Redemption and Cool Hand Luke, depict the often-perilous life on the inside. Some take a different route and have prisoners released from jail trying to make a new life for themselves after years of imprisonment. 2014’s Two Men in Town uses this second format.
A remake of the 1973 French film Deux hommes dans la ville (Two Against the Law), the central figure is ex-convict William Garnett (Forest Whitaker). A career criminal, Garnett has served eighteen years for the murder of a sheriff’s deputy. Upon his release, he tries to make a go of it in Luna County, New Mexico. His parole officer Emily Smith (Brenda Blethyn) helps him along the way as he gets a job, falls in love with a banker Teresa (Dolores Heredia), and deals with Sheriff Bill Agati (Harvey Keitel) and past criminal associate Terence Saldano (Luis Guzman).
There’s a blatant dichotomy at work with the characters Garnett encounters. Teresa and Emily both try to ground him and keep him away from his past wickedness. Agati and Saldano both try to antagonize and lure Garnett back into his sordid ways. It is this tug-of-war that drives most of the movie. Whitaker shines as Garnett, as he vacillates between someone trying to better himself and start a new life versus someone one step away from losing his edge and falling back into his old ways. That character study is where the film shines.
However, there are a lot of things holding this film back. You never get a sense that Garnett is sorry for his crimes, and there’s no real repentance on his part. Guzman as Saldano is evil to a point that’s almost cartoonish. The love story is rushed. Also, the film relies on predictable story beats, and one can assume what’s going to happen less than halfway through the film.
Regardless, this is a great optional pick for public library patrons interested in prison-adjacent films. Two Men in Town appeals to academic libraries for students studying incarceration, recidivism, and media portrayals of law enforcement. It would also work well for a public screening and film series focused on film remakes.