Everything Must Go-review

This is a country song that writes itself.

Will Ferrell can do drama.  In “Stranger than Fiction” he really stretches these muscles and I think it’s one of this best roles.  In “Everything Must Go” he shows that he has raised the bar.  He plays an alcoholic who has just lost his job and wife has left him.  He finds all his stuff out on the front of his lawn, so after a few (hundred) beers he starts to sell all his crap. 

           

            The acting is great and the relationships between Will Ferrell, as Nick and Samantha, his neighbor and his friend, an overweight grade schooler named Jordan.  You can tell he is depressed, vulnerable and has hit rock bottom and it’s not funny in ways like his normal movies.  This movie is far more subtle.  There is a scene that is funny just in the way he looks at this neighbor and his wife, nothing is said. However, the looks say it all.

Nice day, but I can still use more cowbell.

            There is a lot of catharsis to a movie like this and I think that it says a lot that it didn’t find a large audience in theaters.  I can only hope that folks give it a chance when it comes to DVD. It’s dark but it works for it.  I did overhear a guy in the parking lot bitching about it saying he expected it to be a side splitting funny movie.  That has to suck for the actors trying to break free from their usual genre. 

Even the kid from "Notorious" knows a deal when he sees one.

            There is a lot of suffering to behold in a movie like this.  I am just glad that the movie shows a side of life that is realistic and dark.  Life can indeed be a cruel joke and putting one step in front of the other can take a lot out of you.  It tells its story and is quirky sometime.  The characters are all likable and it makes for a very well developed movie well worth the money and time.