Whenever successful funnymen look to branch into dramatic fare, they generally choose a low-budget indie project that requires them to give a subdued performance. Will Ferrell has followed the same career path as Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Adam Sandler, and Bill Murray before him. After wildly popular comedies like Anchorman and Talladega Nights, Ferrell has tried to show his acting range with off-beat films like Adam Rapp's Winter Passing and the Charlie Kaufman-esque Stranger Than Fiction. Now, the man known for his hilarious George W. Bush impression gives his best performance yet in Everything Must Go by first-time writer/director Dan Rush.
Ferrell is Nick Halsey, a middle-aged sales exec for an office supply manufacturer based in Arizona. Rather ironic, considering his recent guest stint on The Office. Anyways, Nick has struggled for years with his alcohol addiction and his boss (Glenn Howerton) has been more than patient with him. Some wild shenanigans at a conference in Denver are the last straw and Nick is summarily fired.
Arriving home, Nick finds his wife has left him, changed the locks on the house, and dumped all his belongings all over the front yard. Nick deals with the situation the best he can by kicking back in his recliner and shotgunning tall boys of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Not exactly the most ringing endorsement for PBR, but it's better than Blue Velvet. Neighbors call the cops and it's a lucky thing Nick's AA sponsor is Det. Frank Garcia (Michael Pena). He buys Nick time to get his shit together by citing a law that allows homeowners to hold a yard sale for no more than five days. In between moments of drunken self-pity, Nick forges a friendship with Samantha (Rebecca Hall), a pregnant photographer who has moved in advance of her husband still in New York. Nick also becomes a surrogate father to Kenny (Christopher Jordan Wallace), an awkward overweight boy aimlessly riding his bike around the block.
Everything Must Go was based on Why Don't You Dance?, a slight short story (just 4 pages long) by Raymond Carver, an author noted for battling his own alcoholism. Dan Rush elaborates on the basic premise of a down-and-out man divesting himself of his possessions as a means of shedding his own faults and demons. Rush's screenplay doesn't go for a driving plot, but a character piece with an indirect journey. Rush does tend to spell things out for the audience by dotting his film with some obvious symbolism and an ending coda literally taken from a fortune cookie. Nick points out that he bares his whole life (warts and all) through his inverted world. As we learn, his neighbors, safe and warm behind their walls, have plenty of skeletons in their closets. Nick's nostalgia for his youth and his disillusionment of the present is summed up with a collection of vintage records he is reluctant to part with. He also gives Samantha an old Polaroid camera, which she uses to capture just the right image of Nick in all his schlubby glory.
Ferrell's performance is both sardonic and packed with quiet desperation. Nick Halsey is a logical extension of the idiot man-child persona Ferrell has perfected. This time around, the character is forced to examine himself with a newfound level of maturity. Ferrell brings a low-key sense of humor to the drama without resorting to the maniacal fits of rage that have become his trademark. In fact, Ferrell doesn't even raise his voice once. To no surprise, Rebecca Hall is wonderful as is Laura Dern as a former high school sweetheart of Nick's. The great Stephen Root is hilarious, despite only appearing in a handful of scenes, as Nick's condescending neighbor. Aside from Ferrell, the actor who has gotten the most positive press is young Christopher Jordan Wallace, the son of Faith Evans and the Notorious B.I.G. In only his second film, Wallace gives a natural performance that avoids the cloying precociousness usually found with children of indie pictures.
"They say everything can be replaced…"
So goes the opening lyrics of The Band's "I Shall Be Released," which plays over the end credits. It's safe to say without a spoiler warning that Nick will eventually learn to define himself through his choices rather than his material belongings. His road to redemption is mapped out clearly for the audience and while Everything Must Go may be a tad predictable and on-the-nose; it's a strong character-driven drama. It may not be worth dashing to the theater to see, but it's worthy of at least a rental.
Rating: *** (*****)
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