At 82, Redford still has his charisma intact in 'Old Man & The Gun'

Robert Redford's legendary film persona has featured its fair share of irrepressible risk takers and smooth talkers, cooly efficient men who can pull off the unexpected with charm and grace. So it's fitting that his final film performance puts the full arsenal of his star shine and decades of audience good will in one satisfying package.

The package -- The Old Man & The Gun -- is a light frothy romp on its surface, but it is also a summation of every Redford role that's come before -- from his taciturn Sundance Kid to his angelic Roy Hobbs from The Natural.

The movie is a throwback, its look and feel emulates films from the late '70s, and has the same quiet grace of a folksy Hal Ashby movie.

This probably means that it doesn't have a prayer at the box office. This is a film that has a romance between too elderly people (Redford and Sissy Spacek, who look luminous together) at its center and the stakes aren't exactly all that high. But of course, that's part of the fun.

Redford, who plays a lifelong thief, is such an amiable, likable guy -- that his bank robberies are as polite and effortless as any normal transaction and he leaves every character he meets (and by extension the viewing audience in the theater) totally disarmed by his calm and confidence.

Of course, this is what Redford has always done, made things that shouldn't be easy, look easy.

He's been really energized in recent years, after some missteps in the early-2000s. His galvanic, physically remarkable performance in the nearly dialogue free All Is Lost, will probably go down as his most compelling latter day effort.

But, I also thought he made a terrific, against-type villain in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and in this film he gets to show off his underrated comic timing, as well as his iconic killer smile.

I've been a fan of his as a long as I can remember, so I am biased. But it'd be great to see him finally get some Oscar love for his acting for The Old Man & The Gun. It's not as flashy as A Star Is Born, but I sometimes think it's work in movies like this, which rely more on smaller emotional beats and specific physicality.

And while Redford has been dinged his whole career for playing parts that are more glamorous than psychologically complex, this film serves as a real counterpoint. Beneath his boyish charms (only Redford could still seem boyish at 82) is an inexplicably restless spirit with a self-destructive streak. His character doesn't know how to slow down, and for much of his career it has seemed like Redford couldn't either.

In fact, he's already started to try to walk back his initial claims that this would be his final role. I don't blame him for reconsidering. The man has still got 'it' after all these years.