“The Grand” is not always funny, but it has more highs than lows. It’s an improvisational comedy in the Christopher Guest mode, but it’s not as disciplined as Guest’s films.
There’s a sense, particularly in “Waiting for Guffman” and “Best in Show,” that Guest is ruthless about trimming improvisations that aren’t funny or revealing, but “Grand” director Zak Penn’s instincts aren’t as sharp. He lets some aimless bits drag on, which means the movie clicks when a deft performer is onscreen and sags when lesser actors are at work.
By “lesser,” I mean Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano or Jason Alexander. Harrelson, unfortunately, plays the main character, a troubled guy who enters the Grand, a poker tournament, hoping to win the money to save the bankrupt Vegas casino he owns. Harrelson’s aimless, self-indulgent ramblings never amount to much, but luckily, the other participants in “The Grand” all are funny and distinctive.
The cleverest actor may be the most surprising: Werner Herzog. The German director of such non-laff riots as the bear-mauling documentary “Grizzly Man” and “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” is a stone-faced hoot as a card sharp whose luck depends on animal sacrifices.
Dennis Farina is spot-on as a racist, violent creep (“The downfall of Las Vegas was the day they let people wear culottes into casinos”), and David Cross and Cheryl Hines rip through the film’s best material as identical twins (!) who compete against each other. (Hines sweetly underplays her merciless character: “Nobody beats me at Candyland. Ask my kids.”)
I’ve saved the best for last. Chris Parnell, who was so lackluster when he was on “Saturday Night Live” that I usually couldn’t remember which one he was, creates the most memorable character, a “Rain Man”-like mama’s boy who dreams of owning a house “with swiveled mirror passageways and a labyrinth” and who matter-of-factly says the most outrageous things, as if he’s not aware they’re coming out of his mouth.
Parnell has plenty of good company (I haven’t even mentioned that Judy Greer and Richard Kind are in the movie), but he alone would make “The Grand” worth a gamble.
“The Grand”
R for strong language and drug use. 1 hour, 44 minutes. Directed by Zak Penn. Written by Penn and Matt Bierman. Photography by Anthony Hardwick. Starring Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines. Opens today at the Mayan Theatre.
