Everything Must Go

source: Everything Must Go

"Everything Must Go" is a wonderful film. Taken from a short story by Raymond Carver, it is a simple idea, but richly textured so the viewer must look under the layers of simplicity for the story to open up. The short story is only a few pages long and it is very simple on the surface. The writing is sparse, but it still makes you think and this idea goes into the film as well. Will Ferrell plays Nick Halsey, the ex-Vice President of a Regional Sales Office. We catch him on his last day of work, downing a flask and reminiscing on the meeting where he was recently terminated after falling off the wagon one too many times. After getting beer, Nick arrives home to see all of his stuff in his front yard and the locks changed. His credit cards and bank account are frozen and he's left with the money on his wallet and the stuff on his lawn. Ferrell gives a very wonderfully subtle performance. Carver would be proud. It seems to me that the main complaint that people have voiced with this film was that there was no big payoff. I disagree. I think there was a big payoff, just not in the sense that there was this huge change in the character. The change is subtle, but it is there. Ferrell goes back to his dramatic abilities to show us the story of a man in crisis, struggling to get out and he does it well. My fear is that this movie will be misunderstood by fans of Ferrell's comedy. It is a depressing movie, but it is a simple story of finding hope as well with comedy sprinkled throughout. My advice would be to give it a chance and be rewarded by seeing Ferrell's abilities.

Greetings again from the darkness. Seeing this film back-to-back with Mel Gibson's "The Beaver" was a mistake. Following up manic depression with severe alcoholism and mild depression is just a bit too much weight in such a short time. But I guess that's the point of this one. Will Ferrell stars as Nick who loses his job, punctures his boss' tire, and finds out his wife not only left him, but also locked him out of the house with all his belongings in the front yard. That's in the first 8 minutes of the film. Ferrell proceeds to get drunk ... while sitting in his Lazy Boy in the front yard. He clearly has hit bottom and shows no signs of recovering. At least not until he partners with a lonely, young, bike riding boy named Kenny (Christopher Jordan Wallace, son of Notorious B.I.G.). This partnership consists of Kenny doing most of the work for the yard sale while Ferrell sleeps and drinks. Rebecca Hall plays a pregnant woman who is moving in across the street. "What kind of man makes his wife move across country alone?". That's the question Ferrell asks Hall ... and along with the viewer, these two characters understand the answer would be a man just like Ferrell. What I like about the film is that there are numerous signs of real human emotion throughout, yet none of the main characters overplays their part. If you are unaccustomed to seeing Mr. Ferrell in anything but slapstick comedies, I encourage you to see "Stranger Than Fiction". He really does have dramatic acting skills on top of his amazing comedic talent. The film comes from first time director Dan Rush and short story writer-extraordinaire Raymond Carver. The script does capture much of the emotion that goes with feeling rejected and searching for numbness in a bottle ... or in this case, a Pabst beer can. Supporting work from Stephen Root, Laura Dern and Michael Pena are solid, but the best scenes are between Ferrell, Wallace and Hall. Don't show up expecting to laugh much. This is a serio-drama that makes you think ... there but for the grace of God ...

Will Ferrell plays Nick Halsey, who arrives home from being fired from his job to find all his belongings on his front lawn. Nick finds a note on his door from his wife letting him know that she has decided to leave him. Rapt with despair Nick, who is a recovering alcoholic, starts drinking heavily and camps out on his front with all his possessions. Eventually, Nick befriends one of the kids in his neighborhood, and together they hold a yard sale on his front lawn to sell off everything that he owns. This is really a story about hitting rock bottom and figuring out a way to start over again. Nick selling off all his belongings becomes cathartic for him as he lets go of his past. Will Ferrell shows some excellent depth in this film. This was huge departure from his normal roles. He may not have nailed it but I admire the fact that he took so much risk with this role. The movie could worth checking out for that alone. I really enjoyed Rebecca Hall as the next door neighbor that helps Nick on his path to redemption. She impressed me in Vicky Christina Barcelona and The Town and she does an excellent job on this film as well. I look forward to seeing some of the movies she has coming out next year. This movie is far from perfect, The pacing is pretty slow, the ending is too abrupt and it lacked some of the emotional punch that it seemed to be striving for. It was an interesting watch however and its worth checking out.

"Good without the bad ain't no good at all." After Nick (Ferrell) gets fired from his job of 16 years he comes home to find his wife has changed the locks on his doors and all of his stuff is on the lawn. Thinking the best way to fix things is to stay at home Nick begins his new life, living outside. This is a very very good movie and a very different role for Will Ferrell. While not quite as good as Adam Sandler in "Reign Over Me", Ferrell still shows he has what it takes to be a good dramatic actor. There are a few funny parts in this but this is not a comedy. It's a drama with a lot of heart and while the movie is depressing at times it is a joy to watch. Ferrell does have some funny scenes with his own style of humor that adds to the character and watching him with the actor that plays Kenny is a treat. This is not a typical Will Ferrell movie, but being a huge fan I loved it and look forward to more roles like this from him. I highly recommend this. Overall, if you like Ferrell you will like this, if you don't give this a shot still. You may like the change. I give it an A. Would I watch again? - I think I would. *Also try - Barney's Version

Everything Must Go is probably Will Ferrell's first truly well done film in years. The Other Guys was pretty good, Step Brothers was funny in parts, but this one totally takes the cake for being a great drama, and schools anyone who thinks Will Ferrell can't do anything but comedy. Though I doubt fans of Old School will think highly of this. The plot isn't too much, but it sustains a film. Will Ferrell is Nick Halsey, an alcoholic who has had one too many alcohol-related episodes and has finally lost his job. He returns home to find out his wife has changed all the locks on the house, and has moved all of his belongings to the front yard. Frustrated and hopeless, he decides to life on his front lawn, and make the best out of a horrible situation. He spends his day sucking down Blue Ribbons beers, until he is met by a chubby adolescent named Kenny (Christopher Jordan Wallace, the son of the late rapper Notorious B.I.G.). Kenny's mom takes care of an elderly woman, leaving him free to roam the streets on his bike. Kenny and Nick strike up an odd, but warm relationship with each other and when Nick is informed by his AA sponsor (Pena) that he must move all his stuff off his lawn in three days, he works with Kenny to help them hold a big yard sale. A sub-plot involves Nick getting acquainted with the woman across the street who has just moved to the neighborhood and is awaiting her husband's arrival. The relationship isn't as strong or as well-crafted as the relationship between Nick and Kenny, but it is still a solid one. It's also noteworthy that we never see Nick's wife or the woman's husband anywhere in the film. We don't need to, though. The plot works fine without them, and I believe that if we saw Nick's wife in the film we'd get too many arguments between the two which may result in (a) believability being low and (b) a possibility for Ferrell's comedy side to sneak in. We don't need comedy here. We get it, but in tiny, miniscule doses. There is almost nothing funny about this situation. Once again, this proves that Will Ferrell is a great character actor, and doesn't have to get drunk, shout his lines, or get in goofy fights to be successful. Unfortunately, Everything Must Go's overall performance wasn't impressive, and it may be a long time before Ferrell does something like this ever again. Not everything here is perfect. The worst flaw is the ending because there is no emotional payoff, and nothing to make our experience anymore than just enjoyable. I wanted more than enjoyable. I haven't read the short story "Why Don't You Dance?" by Raymond Carver, so I'm not sure of any similarities both this and the story share. Everything Must Go is a good film in general, but a great film in terms of Ferrell, who is essentially putting on a one-man-show for more than half the film. Starring: Will Ferrell, Christopher Jordan Wallace, Laura Dern, and Michael Pena. Directed by: Dan Rush.

The first thing to know about this movie is that it's not your typical Will Ferrell comedy. It's not outrageously funny; it's not ridiculously silly. Truthfully, in spite of the comedy/drama label, it's not really a comedy at all. This probably just could have been called a drama. This is downcast, sombre and even sad almost from the first moment. It makes the point that Ferrell can offer an effective performance without having to be outrageous (much as "Reign On Me" made that point for Adam Sandler.) And he was effective in this. His character is Nick Halsey. Nick is a regional vice president of sales for a major corporation of some sort, but he has lots of problems - especially the fact that he's an alcoholic; a problem that's been with him for a long time. As the movie opens, it finally comes to an end for Nick. The company is tired of him. It's not that he's unsuccessful at what he does - they're just tired of him and his antics, and he gets fired. Then, when he arrives home, he discovers his wife is gone, she's changed the locks on the house, and thrown all of his possessions on the front lawn. With nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, Nick takes up residence in the front yard, finally organizing a giant lawn sale just to get rid of everything. Basically that's the story, and the story is the biggest weakness of the movie. This doesn't really go anywhere, it never leads to anything, there's absolutely no closure in how it ends. It basically revolves around the relationships Nick develops with a new neighbour (Samantha, played by Rebecca Hall) who's having some problems of her own and seems to find in Nick a sort of kindred spirit, and with Kenny (Christopher C.J. Wallace) - a local overweight teenager who doesn't really fit in and who helps Nick with the yard sale. The development of those relationships moves the story forward ever so slowly, but as I said it moves slowly forward to no real destination. And by the time this ends you even wonder about those relationships. Did they mean very much? Will they be lasting? And I was lost by the need to involve Laura Dern as one of Nick's former high school classmates. That whole interplay really offered little, except noting that Nick has a big heart. That surely could have been done without the need to introduce a totally extraneous character into the mix. I liked Ferrell in this. He's not the one dimensional actor he sometimes appears to be. The fact that this offered him a vehicle to show that in a low-key and sombre role makes it worthwhile, I suppose, but it doesn't overcome the terribly heavy and ultimately unresolved plot. (5/10)

I really enjoyed Stranger than Fiction and, since I had heard Will Ferrell's performance in that movie compared favorably to the one in Everything Must Go, was excited to see EMG. I walked away after seeing EMG a little unsure of whether I truly enjoyed the movie or just merely appreciated the quality of the director's vision and execution. Everything Must Go is the story of Nick Halsey (Ferrell), a struggling alcoholic who, in the first 10 minutes of the movie, has been laid of from his job and kicked out of his house by his wife, all within the same day. The rest of the movie looks at Halsey's attempt to manage the tension between wanting what he once had and trying to pursue a life that he desires, even though he isn't entirely sure of what that looks like. I will start by saying I thought the acting of everyone involved, especially Will Ferrell and Christopher Jordan Wallace, was superb and a highlight of the movie. I thought the music and visuals added significantly to the feel of the movie, especially how so much of the movie occurred in the front yard with the records of his father occasionally playing in the background. Now I knew to expect a story that was not a happy-go-lucky comedy (is there one about an alcoholic struggling with sobriety), but was hoping for some more lightheartedness. I did particularly enjoy watching the relationship between Nick Halsey and Wallace's "Kenny Loftus", and thought that the filmmakers did a good job pairing the two actors up. A couple of things with which I walked away: first, I found it interesting how the director decided to show Halsey's eventual growth in the way that he let go of certain things, and to whom he left them. Afterwards, a friend of mine and I discussed how difficult these acts would have been, but thought it appropriate for someone trying to move beyond such a serious issue as alcoholism. I also found it interesting that such a pivotal character, like Halsey's wife, has no screen time at all, save for her voice in one scene. It is as if the filmmakers want us to see how much damage one person has managed to do by simply stepping out of another's life. Overall, I do believe that the movie was well made, with an interesting story and fantastic acting, but the mood of the film was a little heavier than what I was looking for.

Dan Rush's modestly paced 'Everything Must Go' pretty much takes a look at the worst day of Nick Halsey's life and the days that follow where he's left stranded in his lawn. The theme is quite refreshing but even though the movie is tagged a comedy, the humour here is very dry (it does draw a few chuckles) and it felt more like an intense human drama than a comedy. Halsey's situation is depressing and it really makes the viewer want to hate Catherine, even though, the writer tries to make the point that she was justified in treating him that way. But anyway, this is Halsey's story and perhaps to balance the intensity, Rush could have added more quirks. The pacing is quite slow at times but there was never a boring moment. I liked how the director and Ferrell depict Halsey's struggle with alcoholism. However, I felt that the story and characters (especially the supporting ones) could have been further developed. Will Ferrell is excellently restrained which makes Halsey all the more human and easier to relate to. Rebecca Hall is brilliant. Laura Dern has about one scene and she shows the viewer how one scene alone can make an actor stand out. Overall, I wouldn't recommend 'Everything Must Go' to those looking for a comedy. It is an intense humour drama about a man who once had everything and is now forced out of his house and how he struggles and attempts to deal with his problems one step at a time.

This is not a movie for the masses. Will Ferrell fans who liked Melinda and Melinda and Stranger Than Fiction will not be surprised by his performance as Nick Halsey in this movie. He does comedy so well, many of his devoted fans may not realize that he is a good dramatic actor as well. Ferrell's supporting actors, especially Christopher Jordan Wallace, are also very good. The story moves at a slow and deliberate pace which will bore all but serious moviegoers. However, the acting is excellent along the way, and in the end, the movie has synergy and leaves you with a positive feeling about Nick's future. If you like deliberately paced independent films, go see this movie. It won't be around long.