There seemingly comes a time in every comedic actor’s career when he or she (well, usually he) must essay a serious dramatic role. That time has come for Will Ferrell. This adaptation of a Raymond Carver story doesn’t completely lack humor, but its the humor of pathos, specifically of a man who has lost his job and his marriage on the very same day, and whose lawn sprinkler has suddenly become his alarm clock, wetting his face on a dry Arizona morning. Getting fired from his sales job and having his wife place all of his belongings on the front yard (and change the locks, and freeze the joint accounts) have something to do with his drinking problem. The coincidental timing of those events and the nice new, and temporarily single, neighbor (Rebecca Hall) moving in, is kind of a contrivance. Still, maybe that’s why the movie wasn’t depressing for me. I think the real experience would have felt lonelier. Or maybe it’s because having everything go all at once can be liberating as well as depressing and frightening. At least on film.
At any rate, I don’t think this felt like a bleak film about an alcoholic. (He is, in fact, not drunk much, as the story develops.) Ferrell plays the role, and first-time director Dan Rush has written it, more like an everyman character, and the alcoholism his particular cross to bear. At least that’s how it seemed to me. And so, as he sits on his lawn for days, with the lonely fat kid he’s paid to watch, or sell, his stuff, it doesn’t seem so bad, although one scene in particular choked me up. The period covered is only a few days, and Rush doesn’t make the mistake of having the alcoholic turn his life around too much. But he believably suggests there’s hope for him, and all of us.
viewed at Ritz 5 and reviewed 5/19/11
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