Mississippi Grind
All Mendelsohn up.
Fancy running away with Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds? Frankly, us neither. No one plays seedy like Mendelsohn, whose human pollutants litter everything from Animal Kingdom to The Dark Knight Rises, and Reynolds tends towards the gobshite – plus they’ve never carried films on their own ( Buried aside). The vehicle for both actors’ redemption is a 1970s-style road-movie-come-character-study that rambles through arse-end America at its own loping pace.
“Slouching like a kid who pissed his pants in the sandbox”, Mendelsohn plays gambling addict Gerry, an in-it-for-life loser who can’t give up, or get better. Reynolds is charismatic chancer Curtis, who joins Gerry for want of anything better to do, reasoning, “When you come to a fork in the road, you take it.” The pair meet at a poker table, tour the Deep South’s bars and backrooms, fall in with call girl Simone (Sienna Miller), all sass and cinnamon locks, and await a big score that’s never going to come.
The film’s – seeming – diffidence will frustrate some. There are few switchbacks or surprises, and the most ‘dramatic’ moment is laughed off in the first 20 minutes. But directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (who previously wrote Half Nelson) know their characters don’t have to be likeable to be compelling. Gerry is the sort of scumbag no A-lister would ever touch, but it’s a gift of a part for the brilliant Mendelsohn who, having lost the final traces of his Australian accent, can expect many more lead roles of this calibre. Despite Gerry’s pathetic outlook, his burgeoning buddyship with Curtis is genuinely affecting because we – and they – know it represents his very last shot. Similarly, the gambling scenes are alternately funny, sad and tense, because you want them to win, even as you know, ultimately, they can’t.
Making authenticity feel this effortless is hard, but Boden and Fleck’s ramshackle approach pays dividends. If you can handle the unruly runtime, it’s well worth a punt.
THE VERDICT A Color Of Money update sketched in sludgy greys and browns, this is the sort of asymmetric outsider movie nobody seems to make anymore. Let’s change that. › Certificate 15 Director Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck Starring Ben Mendelsohn, Ryan Reynolds, Sienna Miller, Analeigh Tipton, Robin Weigert Screenplay Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck Distributor eOne Running Time 109 mins