The last of our four movies in four days, we picked a good one Saturday with this story of Nick, an alcoholic who, in the movie's first five minutes, loses his job and finds that his wife has put all his possessions on the front lawn of their Scottsdale, Arizona, home and changed the locks. Will Ferrell is terrific playing it straight as he did in Stranger Than Fiction (2006) (I listed my favorites in The Other Guys). This is a feature debut for advertising director Dan Rush, who directs and very loosely adapted the screenplay from Raymond Carver's short story Why Don't You Dance (you can read the whole thing in five minutes here). According to the production notes (best to read them after seeing the movie, go to this link and click Download Full Production Notes), Rush wrote the script on spec. 14-year-old Christopher Jordan Wallace (the son of Notorious B.I.G.), who played his father as a boy in the movie Notorious, Rebecca Hall (after I wrote about her in Please Give I saw her in The Town), and Michael Peña (see my post on The Lincoln Lawyer) are also great as Nick's only friends. Mention must be made of Stephen Root (briefly mentioned in Cedar Rapids) as a skeezy neighbor.
Unlike some reviewers (spoiler alert), I liked the score by David Torn (Lars and the Real Girl (2007), The Wackness, more, plus a long career with lots of respected musicians), but you will probably leave humming The Band's "I Shall Be Released" (it's not actually the first track on Music From Big Pink) and other chestnuts from Nick's vinyl collection. I don't see a soundtrack list available online. The critics have rated this 76% on rottentomatoes and audiences only 69%. We liked it a lot.
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