Movie Review: The Grand

The Grand came out in 2007 around the same time that Deal and Lucky You were also trying to make a little moola off the back of the WSOP’s peak attendance the year before. Of the three, The Grand probably makes the best go of it.

The director/co-writer Zak Penn is short on directorial credits, and had a mixed bag with his writing: mostly Marvel movies. (pro: story credit for Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, cons: screenplay credit for Elektra. He and co-writer Matt Bier largely let the actors improvise their lines off the back of the a very short 30-page script. A risky strategy that I don’t think entirely paid off)

The cast recoup some of the missing confidence: Woody Harrelson plays a degenerate Vegas hotel owner, deep in debt and playing to save his family casino, The Rabbit’s Foot. David Cross and Cheryl Haines play a competitive brother/sister pairing, the former a sort of exaggerated Hellmuth, the latter representing the more professional sort of pro gambler.

Dennis Farina plays Deuce, representative of the old Vegas where – as he puts it – ‘Jews and Blacks had to use a different entrance.’ Chris Parnell, of Archer fame plays Melvyn an anti-social savant, and Richard Kind plays Andy Andrews who won a satellite while trying to buy an antique poker.

Then stealing the show as a character almost as deranged as his real life self is the magnificent Werner Hertzog, ‘The German’, who instead of drinking coffee, ‘must kill an animal’ to get his morning rush.

The plot is simple, all these players are trying to win the $10,000,000 winner-take-all poker tournament known as: The Grand.

Along with the main cast, there are a slew of poker related cameos: Ray Romano, Gape Kaplan and Jennifer Tilly pop up as characters while Brunson, Hellmuth, Esfandiari, Negreanu, Phil Gordon, and Phil ‘The Hillside Strangler?’ Laak all show up as themselves. So does – according to the credits – Munchkin the rabbit.

Plausible Poker

Before addressing how good a film it is, or not., The first thing to say is that it gets mega-points for not being utterly horrible at presenting a version of poker that seems plausible to a player of the game. It’s not totally realistic, after all, a winner take all tournament with 1,000 entries would be a mad enterprise nowadays, but The Grand does avoid the worst sins of movie poker.

The final table was even played for real, meaning that the filmmakers weren’t even sure how the film would end. It makes for some odd play on screen, but is also pretty believable with nary a royal flush in sight. Now if only someone could teach actors how to handle chips like they’ve seen them before...

The Secret to Comedy

The film is a mockumentary, mixing interviews, narration, and footage shot ‘during’ the tournament. The improvised lines therefore fit the attempt at a naturalistic tone quite well. However, it’s not a style I am fond of. The found-footage movie felt played out even back in 2007, and the only comedy that has done that mock documentary style with any real success for me was the British original of The Office. My general feeling is that comedy works best when rehearsed and rehearsed till it works like a Heath Robinson machine. ThinkAaron Sorkin’s dialogue meets a Buster Keaton pratfall. After all, as the old joke goes: ‘What’s the secret to comedy?’ ‘I don’t know, what –’ ‘Timing.’

So that said, this movie had a bit of an uphill battle with me. But in the end, I think, it won. I have my reservations: most of the comedians fell flat for me. But the actors: Harrelson, Farina, and in particular Hertzog got some proper belly laughs, as did the Best in Show style commentating from Phil Gordon and Michael Karnow.

While the laughs are pretty hit and miss, what carries the film is the characters. They are surprisingly rounded and sympathetic, even the racist old Deuce who points out to the documentary crew where he once stabbed a homeless person, and by the time you get to the final table, it’s hard to know exactly which of them you want to win.

Some Political Wobbles

I had some worries about the Melvyn character, his borderline autistic personality feels somewhat inappropriate in the PC world we live in. It is saved somewhat by the fact that he is not the worst socialized of the misfit group, and his friendship with Andy Andrews makes for a pleasant injection of heart into what might otherwise have been a stereotype. It left me with mixed feelings, but in the end I think it worked.

The sexual politics are also perhaps a little questionable, Lainie is called ‘The Woman’ for example which may be a joke at the expense of poker – which has always been something of a boys club – or might just be a serious moniker which is more troubling. 2007 is a surprisingly long time ago, but it still feels a little dodge.

But once again I think the film mostly avoids the traps of stereotyping that the setup seemed to be pointing towards: she is well enough written/improvised to seem an individual rather than a representative, and she is the one vaguely professional person in the group of characters we follow through the film.

I also only counted one ‘beat by a girl’ joke in the entire film. Then again, she is the only character with a spouse and children. I feel like giving the film the benefit of the doubt so I’ll give it a half-point for being feminist adjacent.

Overall…

I’d give it a recommendation to a poker audience. It is a flawed comedy, a decent drama, and there is – weirdly for a mockumentary – a ghost at the end with an equal parts cynical and life-affirming message that I liked.

Those are my thoughts on The Grand. Let us know yours in the comments.