Mississippi Grind (2015)
Certified: 15
Duration: 108 minutes
Directed by: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn, Sienna Miller, Analeigh Tipton, Alfre Woodard, Jayson Warner Smith, Robin Weigert, Marshall Chapman, Jane McNeill, Indigo, James Toback,
KRS Releasing Ltd
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden have delivered a gem of a small movie that works on many different levels. Selective movie audiences will find a lot to like in Mississippi Grind, not the least of which being the excellent performances and the feel of the 1970s road movie as it blazes its own path.
Notably, it’s the first movie to give actor Ben Mendelsohn his chance to shine. The actor is here placed in the spotlight for the first time and delivers a performance that is so thorough as to place Ryan Reynolds in the shade, even though the latter is also quite good.
Mendelsohn plays Gerry, who is in his 40s and from Iowa. At the start of the movie we see him meet Curtis (Ryan Reynolds), a man in his 30s who is rather jovial. Soon the two are best of friends as they learn they share many things in common. This includes their alcohol and gambling habits. However, the two men are quite different.
Curtis is a free spirit; he has little if anything to tie him down. He is on a gambling high and intends to keep it that way.
Gerry is a real estate agent, is divorced, has a daughter with whom he rarely speaks and has a huge amount of debt, all stemming from his gambling habit.
Soon he sets off on a gambling spree on the Mississippi River, which carries a $25,000 price tag. Curtis provides him with $2,000 to start with while they go and visit Simone (Sienna Miller), Curtis’s sometime girlfriend. When at one point he reunites with his ex-wife his luck turns sour.
Most gambling movies are set either in Las Vegas or some underworld kind of haven. The fact that this movie is set on the Mississippi River and has places such as New Orleans as its background makes the film rather different.
It is like a nostalgic ode to an America that is long gone. It’s almost a lament for a different America, one where country songs still play and heroes abound.
Yet despite this nostalgic elements, the film has a light comical feel to it.
Mississippi Grind is the telling of a strange friendship as the two protagonists like each other, share a common addiction, have a strange need for each other and, yet, are in a constant tug of war. It’s about life’s meanderings and the film succeeds in portraying these in an excellent manner.