You've got the master of aggressively uncomfortable comedy, Brett Gelman, one of today's best absurdist sketch performers in Mark Little, one of yesterday's best absurdist sketch performers in Mark McKinney and consummate Apatow ringer Carla Gallo (and even Suits' Patrick J. Adams is in here). So the
cast is all great, but for the incredible comedic talent they bring to
the table, there's not a lot of funny here. Put that on writer-director
Atkinson who I think intended this to be more amusing, and likely
also more insightful, than it winds up being.
There are frequent reports about big lottery winners who mismanage their money and are unsuccessful at maintaining their wealth. There's definite comedic potential in the premise of following up decade after a person won the lottery as a teen and spent it all foolishly. There are some mildly amusing aspects of this in the script but it's too concerned with Mitch's regret to punch it into full blown comedy.
Even as a character study, it's pretty lacking, at least for comedic purposes. Mitch isn't depressed, he's not really a huge asshole, he's not even that embarrassed or angry, he's just kind of numb. Some of that could be put on Little's otherwise affable performance, but more of it would have to do with the vision of the the writer-director, which plays things entirely too safe. Little can do broad comedy very well, and when you have a Bret Gelman playing a very suspicious new tenant in the family home, one expects some of that toothy, darkly comedic Gelman energy, which never quite materializes.
The score is so oppressively generic as to make itself known rather than recede into the background. It's ever-present and tries too hard to insinuate levity, like a Hallmark Channel "romantic comedy". There's the base of a good movie here, and it's entirely watchable, likeable even, but it's not memorable because it doesn't risk anything.
There are frequent reports about big lottery winners who mismanage their money and are unsuccessful at maintaining their wealth. There's definite comedic potential in the premise of following up decade after a person won the lottery as a teen and spent it all foolishly. There are some mildly amusing aspects of this in the script but it's too concerned with Mitch's regret to punch it into full blown comedy.
Even as a character study, it's pretty lacking, at least for comedic purposes. Mitch isn't depressed, he's not really a huge asshole, he's not even that embarrassed or angry, he's just kind of numb. Some of that could be put on Little's otherwise affable performance, but more of it would have to do with the vision of the the writer-director, which plays things entirely too safe. Little can do broad comedy very well, and when you have a Bret Gelman playing a very suspicious new tenant in the family home, one expects some of that toothy, darkly comedic Gelman energy, which never quite materializes.
The score is so oppressively generic as to make itself known rather than recede into the background. It's ever-present and tries too hard to insinuate levity, like a Hallmark Channel "romantic comedy". There's the base of a good movie here, and it's entirely watchable, likeable even, but it's not memorable because it doesn't risk anything.
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