EVERYTHING MUST GO Review. Will Ferrell shows his serious side

Movie review of Everything Must Go: Will Ferrell pushes aside laughs for drama in heartfelt film.

If you accept that nothing is more difficult than a good comic performance, then it's not at all surprising to watch Saturday Night Live alum and slapstick clown Will Ferrell play a struggling alcoholic in the midlife crisis drama Everything Must Go. The theory - one I accept wholeheartedly - is that a comic performer is well equipped to play the most challenging of dramatic roles. Once you can make an audience laugh, making an audience cry seems easy.

Granted, Ferrell takes a risk playing a relatively unsympathetic drunk in Everything Must Go and staying clear from any comic moments no matter how much audiences want to see him to break loose.

The bigger risk-taking belongs to first-time feature filmmaker Dan Rush who liberally adapts the acclaimed Raymond Carver short story Why Don't You Dance? into a full-length drama that requires plenty of additional storytelling on his part.

Fans of Carver's short stories (myself included) won't ever say that Rush has improved on Carver's original storytelling because Everything Must Go lacks the intimacy and utter sense of sadness of Carver's short story Why Don't You Dance?

Still, Rush stays true to the melancholy spirit of Carver while expanding the story to support a feature-length film. While too low-key at times, a surprising characteristic for a Will Ferrell movie, Rush saves his movie with second-half drama involving the film's damaged male lead and an old high-school friend he seeks out for friendship.

Nicolas Halsey (Ferrell) loses his sales job of sixteen years, his wife and his home all in a single day. Unsure what to do and unable to put down the Pabst Blue Ribbon, Halsey settles into a recliner on the front yard of his suburban home and moves forward with mixed results.

First of all, Ferrell makes great use of his aw-shucks personality and rambling charm in Everything Must Go. He plays Halsey as a college frat boy who never stopped drinking or stopped to consider the price others pay for his drinking.
Ferrell shuffles through Everything Must Go a bit too aimlessly and one wishes he displayed a better grasp at despair.

Still, Carver is considered an American Chekhov when it comes to drama and while it's impossible to imagine Ferrell on-stage performing Uncle Vanya (straight) his solid Everything Must Go performance allows us to picture him in other dramatic roles.

Writer/director Rush makes the transition from commercial videos to feature filmmaking with impressive results. Everything Must Go is character-driven and performance-oriented without any of the visual flash one expects from a music video director looking to make his stamp in the feature film world.

Instead, Rush works with cameraman Michael Barrett and makes great use of a 35mm anamorphic lens to create beautiful wide shots of the suburban streets and lawns around Halsey's southwestern home.

Rush strips one of the key moments from Carver's short story - a young couple dancing in the driveway to the music of the record player - and replaces it with new subplots and characters including a young African-American teen (Christopher C.J. Wallace) who befriends Halsey and a pretty new neighbor (Rebecca Hall) who shares much in common with Halsey.

Yet, to Rush's credit, Everything Must Go is at its best when Rush coaxes the movie as far away from Carver's original story as possible when Halsey visits up an old high school friend (Laura Dern) who once wrote something nice in his high school yearbook.

Laura Dern makes the most of her brief scene as a woman who can sense a damaged man when she sees one. There's compassion in her performance but it's restrained because she understands that Halsey is someone to avoid until her gets his life in order.

So let's applaud Rush for taking the risk of adapting Carver and making a movie out of one his beloved short stories. Granted, Rush is not the new Raymond Carver and in fact Everything Must Go pales a bit when compared to Robert Altman's adaptation of nine Carver stories and one poem into his landmark ensemble drama Short Cuts.

Still, Rush and Ferrell are brave with Everything Must Go and their bravery pays off in a heartfelt drama that does justice to Carver's story.

Of course, Farrell returns to comedy with future films but it looks like he'll continue to make room for drama.

With Rush, Everything Must Go is good enough to make one anticipate his future projects with high expectations. After all, if he's brave enough to tackle Raymond Carver with his feature film debut, imagine what he'll do next.
 

Movie Details, Trailers, Posters and Images for Everything Must Go:

Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Director: Dan Rush
Scriptwriter: Dan Rush, from the Raymond Carver story "Why Don't You Cance?"
Cinematographer: Michael Barrett
Cast: Will Ferrell, Rebecca Hall, Christopher C.J. Wallace, Laura Dern, Michael Pe–a
Production Designer: Kara Lindstrom
Music: David Thorn
Editor: Sandra Adair
Running Time: 96 minutes
Producers: Temple Hill Productions
Rating: Rated R
Release Date: May 13, 2011