Mississippi Grind (2015) [Blu-ray]
Drama

Gerry is a talented poker player, but his gambling habit is getting the best of him. One day, he meets a charismatic young traveler named Curtis. Deeming Curtis his lucky charm, Gerry convinces him that they should hit the road together. As they gamble their way down South toward a legendary high-stakes poker game in New Orleans, the trip’s highs and lows unveil the duo’s true character and motivation, and an undeniable bond forms between them.

Storyline: Down on his luck and facing financial hardship, GERRY teams up with a younger charismatic poker player named CURTIS in an attempt to change his luck. The two set off on a road trip through the South with visions of winning back what has been lost. Written by Electric City

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 3, 2015 -- Virtually every one of the United States has some form of gambling available, whether it be its own state run lottery, the multistate offerings like Powerball or Mega Millions, or casinos run by various Native American tribes and the like. Unless you happen to live in one of the very few states without any of these "opportunities", chances are you've seen the ads urging people to "gamble responsibly," many formulated around scenes of individuals who obviously don't have control of their desire to play the numbers or pull the lever on an appropriately named one armed bandit. Those wanting a longer form warning about the incipient dangers of gambling may well want to check out the somewhat meandering but emotionally powerful Mississippi Grind, a film which posits Ben Mendelsohn as a poker player named Gerry who is convinced his seemingly perennial losing streak is bound to end soon. That hope is magnified once he meets a charming younger guy named Curtis (Ryan Reynolds) whom Gerry comes to believe is something akin to a living rabbit's foot. Mississippi Grind plays like a somewhat languid road movie, building its loose limbed structure out of a series of vignettes as these two supposed brothers in arms slowly reveal their backgrounds as they take off together on what Gerry hopes will be a substantial payday in New Orleans. The film is deliberately frayed from a narrative standpoint, allowing the actors to fully inhabit roles that require as much reacting as actual acting, and that proclivity may end up at least slightly alienating some viewers who may wish for a more directional story arc.

Perhaps somewhat predictably, Gerry's gambling "problem" has left a trail of emotional debris in its wake, as Mississippi Grind slowly but surely begins detailing. While still supposedly gainfully employed as a real estate agent, the fact is that Gerry is deeply in debt (Alfre Woodard has a great cameo as a cool but calculating loan shark), and he seems to be intent on only digging himself an even deeper hole with his inability to stop betting on poker (and, later, other games of chance). That said, Gerry is obviously not completely cavalier about this unfortunate habit, as evidenced by the kind of funny CDs he repeatedly listens to in his car which are ostensibly educating him on how to recognize various "tells".

Initially at least, Curtis seems to be something of a golden boy by comparison. Where Gerry is haggard, unkempt and emotionally unbalanced, Curtis seems to be the very model of affability and persuasive abilities. That may lead some to come to an early conclusion that Curtis is in fact a grifter, but it's to the credit of the screenplay by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (who also co-directed) that the film actually takes a less expected arc, ultimately detailing some of the cracks in Curtis' own psyche.

While the interrelationship between this putative odd couple provides a lot of Mississippi Grind's kind of hangdog appeal, it's in various vignettes with females that some of the most, well, telling character traits are offered. Curtis has a kind of sweet on again, off again relationship with a St. Louis woman named Simone (Sienna Miller). Gerry also hooks up with a friend of Simone's, a naif named Vanessa (Analeigh Tipton), serenading the innocent young girl with a piano rendition of Erik Satie's Gymnopodies, but it's actually a brief but devastating scene between Gerry and his ex-wife Dorothy (Robin Weigert) which finally reveals the depths to which Gerry has actually sunk.

There are a number of cinematic antecedents which either intentionally or unintentionally inform at least parts of Mississippi Grind. In the no doubt intentional category, 1974's Karel Reisz opus The Gambler probably springs first to mind, and in fact that film's scenarist James Toback shows up here in a cameo. Other films that deal with gambling at least tangentially, including another 1974 outing, Robert Altman's California Split, tend to be recalled in terms of general plot dynamics if not in actual tone (Boden and Fleck are decidedly less whimsical, not to mention twee, than Altman can be). But there are at least arguable connections to other quasi-road movies like Hard Times, where the investigation into various characters' inner lives tends to motivate the story more than any histrionic plot mechanics.

Both lead performers offer nicely lived in performances, with Reynolds playing off of his innate charm and matinee idol good looks with a kind of vulnerability that makes Curtis a surprisingly nuanced character. The film belongs largely to Mendelsohn, however, with the actor offering a beautifully rumpled, sad but resilient take on a problematic character. There's both (relative) triumph and (relative) tragedy on hand (no pun intended) throughout Mississippi Grind, and in fact if the film is to be faulted in terms of its overall arc, it's that there never seems to be the kind of catharsis that Boden and Fleck seem to be aiming for. While both characters perhaps (perhaps) come to a greater understanding of what motivates them, the film's closing moments seem to suggest that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mississippi Grind offers two exceptional characterizations, but those are in service of a somewhat haphazard tale that never quite provides a consistently winning hand. Still, the film is quite emotionally involving and there are a number of exceptional vignettes that all of the performers tear into with considerable (if low key) relish. Technical merits are strong, and Mississippi Grind comes Recommended.

[CSW] -1.5- Decent enough watch, but it does just tend to get repetitive. Feels like a 30 minute story padded to feature length. Everyone does a great job - acting, directing, and cinematography. But it seemed to just repeat similar scenarios until the final 10-15 minutes. It seemed to be going nowhere and I just couldn't get on the gambling ride with these guys to relate to their bonding. It just felt like it needed to move forward after about 30 minutes in, and even the ending didn't fix it for me.
[V4.0-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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