“Everything Must Go” is based on an extremely short story by Raymond Carver called “Why Don’t You Dance.” Just about the only thing remaining from the story is the idea of a man whose belongings have been put out on his own front lawn.
As ideas go, this is an intriguing one. All the bits and pieces of a man’s life, spread out for his neighbors to see. He’s got nowhere to hide.
For the movie, writer-director Dan Rush has provided an explanation for this situation and a few subplots to weave around it. And at the center of this peculiar situation, he’s cast Will Ferrell, trying out his first straight dramatic role since “Stranger Than Fiction.”
Ferrell plays Nick Halsey, suburban husband and habitual drunk. On the same day, Nick is fired and locked out of his house.
His wife has left the home, but she’s put Nick’s belongings — recliner, record collection, George Foreman grill — out on the lawn, and he sets up shop there for a few days of self-reflection and Pabst Blue Ribbon.
People tell him he can’t live out there. But why not? He’s just putting all his stuff in the open, instead of keeping it hidden.
Nick has encounters with a pregnant photographer (Rebecca Hall, “The Town”) who lives across the street, a sympathetic cop (Michael Pena), and a kid (Christopher Jordan Wallace) from the down the block who helps him organize a yard sale.
In one ill-advised move, Nick looks through a high-school yearbook and decides it would be a good idea to visit a classmate (Laura Dern) who wrote something nice about him 20 years earlier.
There is potential in the idea of a desperate man laying himself out in public like this; we are witnessing a laid-back sort of protest against the world, as Nick decides to ignore the social faux pas of sleeping in the recliner and drinking himself into a stupor.
And Will Ferrell, who is not yet the kind of comic actor that can reach for a deeper way of expressing his inner tragedian, does nicely for himself by playing it minimalist. Poor Nick just seems exhausted, by keeping up appearances, by playing along with a crummy corporate job, and by his own bad habits.
The problem is, while director Rush has some interesting pieces at his disposal, they seem as scattered as Nick’s collection. Things are just a little too pat, the characters just a little too convenient for Nick’s halting rehabilitation. This situation is more interesting before everything gets put away.
“Everything Must Go”: two and a half stars
A very short Raymond Carver story becomes an expanded study of a man, played by Will Ferrell in minimalist mode, who loses his job and his wife on the same day, and finds himself locked out of his home and living in his front yard. Not everything clicks here, but the good cast includes Rebecca Hall and Laura Dern.
Rated: R for for language, subject matter
Showing: Alderwood mall, Guild 45th
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