The Grand (2007)

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Poker:
Metaphor for Life

Of all the mockumentaries I've seen (a la Christopher Guest), this is, by far, my favorite! While there was a short outline of what was to happen, the film is basically improv, through and through. And it's easy to see that the big cast had lots of fun with it.

The setting is the Grand Championship of Poker in Las Vegas and the contestants and how they made it to the final table of players. The action at the final table was filmed just exactly as it played out. Now deals were pre-set nor expected and the actors themselves had free reign to fold or bet, and could bet as high as they were able to bid with the chips they had. So basically the end of the film was totally unknown even to the cast and crew until the final hand was played.

Contestants include:

Uber-addict One Eyed Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson), who has borrowed against Lucky's Rabbit's Foot, the casino he inherited from his deceased grandfather and needs to repay the debt or lose the property to billionaire developer Steve Lavisch (Michael McKean)

Lainie Schwartzman (Cheryl Hines), wife and mother of six from Long Island, whose husband Fred Marsh (Ray Romano) stays at home with the children and runs a Yahoo! Fantasy Football League.

Lainie's twin brother, Larry Schwartzman (David Cross) -- siblings who have always been fiercely competitive with each other thanks to the encouragement of their father Seth (Gabe Kaplan), who also shows up at the poker tournament. Larry is a pretty vicious player who works hard to psych out competitors.

The social inept genius Harold Melvin (Chris Parnell) who takes every opportunity to lecture and berate his competitors and his mother (Estelle Harris), who Harold still lives with and who provides him with everything he needs.

The German (Werner Herzog) who feels the need to kill something every day to energize himself -- thus the many cages of hamsters and other small mammals and collection of ants he brings to his hotel room.

The cantankerous Deuce Fairbanks (Dennis Farina) who has been coming to Vegas since the early years and is fairly annoyed with what it's become. He's there for the poker and prostitutes and nothing more.

The Wisconsin school teacher Andy Andrews (Richard Kind), a real rube who earned his chair at the table after he'd won it on online poker when he discovered the game whilst googling for "fireplace pokers." Andy's devoted wife (Judy Greer) accompanies him to Vegas.

Others in the huge cast include:

Jason Alexander, Mike Epps, and Hank Azaria, who compete in the semifinals with an array of real professional poker players including Doyle Brunson, Phil Laak, Mitzi Woodward and others.

Andrea Savage as the billionaire's assistant.

Julie Claire as One Eyed Jack's psychiatrist.

Shannon Elizabeth as one of Jack's 74 former wives.

Directed by Zak Penn, who also cowrote the basic and brief script with Matt Bierman.

Run Time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated R for language and some drug content.

My personal rating: B