Will Ferrell has spent most of his career playing outsized characters. In first-time writer-director Dan Rush's "Everything Must Go," the comedian scales back his performance to explore the internal world of a broken man attempting to salvage his life.
Nick Halsey could recite every salesman trope known to man. But his encyclopedic knowledge of his profession cannot save him from losing his job after a decline in performance and a shameful and vague incident caused by his reinvigorated drinking problem.
After a bumbling and violent burst of revenge, Halsey stocks up on beer and returns home to find that not only has his wife left him, but she has placed all his belongings in the front yard. A glum but determined Halsey sorts through the detritus of good intentions : a kayak, exercise equipment and samurai swords.
Unprepared to collect himself and his things and unable to accept the drastic changes imposed on his life, Halsey rearranges his tidy patch of suburban ruin to resemble the inside of a home. Then he plops into his recliner and enjoys a cold beer. And another, and another, and another.
This foggy charade of living continues, and despite the unrealistic nature of the events, the persistent refusal to acknowledge the dire truth of his circumstance serves as a strong metaphor for the denial that weights alcoholics. In the face of interrogation and judging glances from his nosy neighbors in this Phoenix suburb where it seems people go to settle down or just settle, Halsey acts as if everything is normal.
In Raymond Carver's spare 1,600-word short story on which the film is based, the Halsey character interacts only with a young couple who has come to sift through his belongings in hopes of finding some bargains. Here, Halsey is confronted by two neighbors and some friends who serve as mirrors for the lost soul.
Precocious but soft-spoken neighborhood boy Kenny (the late Notorious B.I.G.'s son, Christopher Wallace) happens upon Halsey one morning in his yard. The inquisitive and caring teen runs errands for him and serves as his ad hoc sales assistant. Kenny challenges Halsey to be honest with himself about his condition and also offers his new friend a chance to be useful, as Halsey ends up weeding through his overgrown life by mentoring the adolescent in the ways of baseball and school bullies.
Playing father figure to a child would serve as too clean and easy an out, and fortunately Rush does not give into simple sentimentality. Through the characters of newlywed neighbor Samantha (Rebecca Hall), who is struggling with a domestic problem of her own, and Delilah (a brief and honest performance from Laura Dern), Halsey slowly begins to confront his anger and disappointment with himself. Ferrell, who has spent so much of his career playing one-note characters, shows subtlety and range as he progresses through the five stages of grief.
Ferrell and Rush do not force easy solutions . Ferrell plays with great tenderness and remorse a man who must let go of his grievances and rationalizations and learn to take responsibility for his own happiness, as he discovers that sometimes humiliation is the best road to humility.
The film does have its missteps. A mustachioed Michael Pena as a police officer and Halsey's AA sponsor feels horribly miscast, like a child playing dress-up in his dad's suit and wingtips. And though the 12-packs of Pabst Blue Ribbon go down at an alarming rate, a reliance on weak-as-water beer does not feel dangerous enough. Nobody wants to watch someone stumble around the screen drunk on whiskey for over an hour, but the introduction of hard liquor would have made the character feel more unhinged.
Ferrell has been able to make audiences laugh for so long with such relative ease that at times here he provokes laughter where maybe a more serious actor would not. But that is part of the wondrous complexity of dark humor \u2013 that which makes some cringe will make others laugh, and Ferrell walks that line with confidence and commitment.
In the past, the comedy veteran has played put-upon characters whose bodies and faces knot in a frustration that eventually unravels in bursts of comedy. As Halsey, Ferrell releases that tension more slowly with a sadness and dark comedic edge that feel more unsettling but ring more true.
"Everything Must Go"
Grade: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
Genres: Comedy Drama
Running Time: 97 min
MPAA rating: R
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