The 15:17 to Paris

Director Clint Eastwood and writer Dorothy Blyskal tell the story of those three American tourists who helped foil a terrorist attack on a train from Amsterdam to Paris in 2015, with the three heroes (Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler) playing themselves. The young men do quite well, and Eastwood delivers a polished product with a tightly staged climax. Only the inexperienced Blyskal drops the ball; her script (from the book by the three heroes and Jeffrey E. Stern) is slack and tedious, and glosses over the role of French and British passengers in subduing the attacker. Judy Greer and Jenna Fischer co-star as (respectively) Stone’s and Skarlatos’ mothers, and having the heroes play themselves allows for a newsreel cameo by French President François Hollande awarding them the Legion of Honor.