(USA, 108 min.)
Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Starring: Ben Mendelsohn, Ryan Reynolds, Sienna Miller,
Analeigh Tipton, Alfre Woodard
 |
| Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
Can a character actor be a leading man? Can a leading man be
a character actor? Vegas odds tell film buffs to bet on the actors who play
strange, offbeat characters in the supporting races, but to stack chips on the
more conventionally attractive (but not necessarily more talented) actors when
it comes to the top dogs. Mississippi
Grind is a dark horse victory, though, as the film gives character actor
Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom, Slow West)
a lead performance that showcases his skills in top form and does the same for
Canada’s Ryan Reynolds by offering a role that demands his leading man looks,
but offers a challenge he has yet to face. Driven by two solid performances, Mississippi Grind plays its hand ever so
smartly.
This new drama from Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, the team who pushed Canada’s other Ryan to new dramatic heights in Half Nelson, return with a gritty slice of realism in Mississippi Grind as bottomed-out cardshark Gerry (Mendelsohn) searches for a major score to clear his ever-mounting gambling debts. Cue a mystery stranger just as the dealer turns the river on Gerry’s fate, and this charming poker player, Curtis (Reynolds), is just the top-shelf bourbon drinker to change his fate. Gerry sees Curtis as a lucky charm (or a “leprechaun,” specifically) as his game turns into a winning streak in his presence. Gerry, who fastidiously studies behavioural tips to read players at the poker table, can’t spot Curtis’s tell, which makes him an ideal shark to shadow.
Curtis’s trick? He says he plays for fun. Playing for fun
should be an obvious tell for any experienced gambler, but Gerry bites. The two
take a road trip to New Orleans as they evade Gerry’s salad-eating bookie
(Alfre Woodard, who goes from sweet to sinister in a quick flick) and look to
clear Gerry’s debt.
Mississippi Grind
isn’t so much about the payday as about the hunger to both win and lose. The
film casts Gerry akin to a junkie as his gambling addiction sabotages his
winning streak with Curtis. Up ten grand, Gerry might go all in because he has
an inkling that doubling down brings the big payout; however, the itch to
Mendelsohn’s performance tells that Gerry’s cares not so much about winning as
he does about losing. Winning the game and coming out of the red robs Gerry of
his purpose. Debt, on the other hand, keeps him going. It’s an excuse to play
another game and increase the stakes as adrenaline levels rise higher than the
stacks of chips around the table.
As a portrait of addiction, Mississippi Grind offers a sobering character study of
self-destructive behaviour. Nothing is ever enough for Gerry and Curtis (whose
own need to feed the habit masks itself far better than Gerry’s does) and Boden
and Fleck create a world in which every minute of life is a gamble. Gerry flips
coins to determine whether to settle the bar bill or keep on drinking, while a
simple wager on passersby dictates whether the boys go big or go home. When
everything hinges on fate, these men can escape the burden of responsibility.
They both run from broken lives and as soon as the chips are evened out, then
the hardest hand—life—is all that’s left to play.
Mendelsohn is strong as Gerry as hits rock bottom at the
tables and at the races. Building on a character actor’s dexterity for minute
layers of humanity and fallibility, Mendelsohn’s Gerry wears a gruff poker face
that inevitably invests the audience not in a desire to see Gerry win the big
score, but to overcome his addiction and recognize the emptiness of his life
while he can still cash out. Reynolds, meanwhile, gives his most unexpected and
strongest dramatic turn yet as Curtis. The role calls on Reynolds to exploit
his A-list good looks, but it adds a some grey to his hair and some unkempt
roughness to his exterior as his charm and personality play as Curtis’s own
protective shield. Like Gerry, he masks his emptiness and loneliness, but as
the better gambler between the two, his poker face is always switched on and
charming us with misdirection.
Boden and Fleck deal their own hand of misdirection Mississippi Grind uses elements of the
road movie to take the gamblers on a presumed road to redemption. What begins
as a journey from A to B ultimately resembles a circular roadmap. As the men
play game upon game and win some, lose some, Mississippi Grind challenges the players to recognize the futility
of their own existence. Some pit spots with memorable characters played by
Sienna Miller, Analeigh Tipton, and especially Robin Weigert as Gerry’s
ex-wife, show the extra losses that don’t factor into the ante when the
gamblers’ hedge their stakes. These brief scenes play like turns on the poker
table that change the odds as Gerry and Curtis reassess their hands and
recognize when to call it. Despite the emptiness of Gerry and Curtis’s game, Mississippi Grind ultimately shows us how hard it hurts to lose. Winning isn’t
everything, at least when it comes to the tables.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Mississippi Grind is now
out from VVS Films
It screens in Toronto
at TIFF Lightbox and is available on iTunes beginning Sept. 25
