By Cate Marquis
MISSISSIPPI GRIND is a low-budget, indie-style road trip movie about two down-on-their-luck fellows, a gambler and his smooth-talking financier, as they make their way down the Mississippi River to a big poker game in New Orleans. With beautifully shot scenes in St. Louis, as well as other river town locations, this rambling, gambling road trip features a fine performance by Ben Mendelsohn and possibly the best-ever performance by Ryan Reynolds, who play a pair of losers looking for redemption and a final jackpot.
Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) is a middle-aged addictive gambler who has some skill at poker but no little judgment on when to walk away. Gerry is eking out a living in a dead-end job in a small upper Midwestern town when he meets Curtis (Ryan Reynolds), a younger man looking for a “talent” to back. The set-up has echoes of Paul Newman’s “The Hustler” but Gerry is no Eddie Felton. He is one step ahead of loan sharks when he leaves town with Curtis for a road trip to New Orleans, despite a nagging feeling that Curtis is just a con man playing him as Jerry has played so many others in his own life. Part of the appeal of this film is this persistent tension between Gerry and Curtis, and our uncertainty where they are friends or not, and who is conning who at any given moment.
Directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, and also starring Sienna Miller, Analeigh Tipton, Robin Weigert and Alfre Woodard, the major appeal of “Mississippi Grind” is in its fine performances and the characters’ believable quirky relationship. We are never sure, until the end, if these men are conning each other or just themselves. Both have histories of deceit and self-delusion, and are hardly reliable in any sense. Yet each has an unwavering hope in the next big score, the next second chance, or a redeeming love just on the horizon.
The other appeal for St. Louis audiences are the scenes filmed here, which present the city as an exciting and attractive place.
Despite the shady, outsider world that both Gerry and Curtis live in, the photography is often bright and colorfully appealing, making the various location sparkle like Las Vegas lights. The photographer is a kind of visual metaphor for the gamblers’ unreasoning optimism. There is a thrill in seeing St. Louis shown as a romantic city with lively nightlife, even if the riverboat gambling cruise that the tuxedo-suited pair take is probably fiction. Even driving down the highway, “Mississippi Grind” is filled with bright, hopeful light and pretty vistas. The film’s title comes from a horse in one of the races at a track, one of many gambling stops Gerry and Curtis make as they follow the river down to New Orleans.
The affection and appealing treatment of locations in the middle of the country is refreshing and one of many things that make this film different from the usual Hollywood film. The characters are the other appeal, not just the fine performances of Mendelsohn, who is amazing in this film, and Ryan Reynolds, doing his best dramatic work ever, as they con or confide in each other, but the whole cast. Sienna Miller gives a touching performance as a prostitute with whom Curtis has an on-and-off relationship. The weaker side of this film is its rambling plot, which gives it an unfocused quality that may cause viewer interest to wander as well. However, the story has enough twists and surprises to bring that attention back.
While it has its flaws, MISSISSIPPI GRIND is worth the trip, thanks in large part to Mendelsohn’s remarkable performance and to the nice St. Louis sequence.
MISSISSIPPI GRIND OPENS IN ST. LOUIS AT THE CHASE THEATER
ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2015
OVERALL RATING: 2 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS
