Win It All
Director - Joe Swanberg
Writers - Joe Swanberg and Jake Johnson
Starring - Jake Johnson, Aislinn Derbez, Joe Lo Truglio, Keegan-Michael Key
Win It All follows several months in the life of gambling addict Eddie Garrett (Johnson) from prolific mumblecore director Joe Swanberg. This is almost certainly the most conventional movie of Swanberg's career, retaining very little from his microbudget largely improvisational films. Win It All fits comfortably in with the more dramatic "Sundance Indies" eschewing the artificial quirks of it's contemporaries in favour of streamlined character development and storytelling.
Eddie Garrett is a gambling addict. Parking cars as Cubs games solely to finance his nights (and early mornings) at his neighbourhood gambling den. It's easy to get the feeling that this is a man who constantly finds himself in debts to various people. One morning coming home from a full night of gambling he finds a friend sitting in his dining room with a black duffel bag. This friend wants Eddie to store the duffel while he is serving out a 6 month prison sentence. Eddie agrees and soon finds himself unable to resist the temptation to look inside the bag. He finds tens of thousands of dollars and proceeds to gamble a significant portion of it away, reaching his personal rock bottom before attempting to clean his life up.
The film does a phenomenal job putting the audience in the headspace of Eddie through the ups and downs in his life. We gets the highs of his wins, the disparaging lows of his losses, the struggles to get clean, the clarity and energy of clean living and the desperate sink back into addiction. This is where the film excels, in it's portrayal of a gambling addict and his attempt at recovery. Jake Johnson is great, showing how gambling controls his life. There's a standout scene early when he is trying to hide his gambling from his brother (Lo Truglio) and sister-in-law. Joe Lo Truglio is great here as well showing dramatic depth I had not seen from him before. He sells the older brother looking out for his little brother who has seen all the cycles of recovery and addiction before. Also involved is Eddie's sponsor, Gene (Key) who tries everything in his power to get Eddie to come back to meetings.
For all the greatness this film finds in it's portrait of addiction, it is held back by its overall tone. The best way to describe this movie is an indie drama with comedic overtones. These overtones are never bad or clashing, in fact they are quite often funny, but they work to limit the film's potential. With the director, writers and cast all having much more comedic than dramatic experience this film at times feels like it is only dipping its toes in drama. It is never able to fully sell its dramatic stakes. Even at his lowest points, it always feels like Eddie will rebound as if this is just a more serious episode from a sitcom.
Compounding this problem is the organically obligatory love interest, Eva (Derbez). I say organic because Derbez and Johnson have great chemistry and the entire night they meet is well done and perfectly fits into the story. After that though it begins to feel more like a plot device to run Eddie's addiction against. It even features more sitcom-y humour such as a plotline wherein Eddie just wants to have sex but Eva wants to wait. Again, the script and it's roots in comedy holding the film back. The makings of a great film are quite evident in Win It All though it never fully follows through on them instead settling for being merely good.
Schurmann Score - 7/10
Win It All follows several months in the life of gambling addict Eddie Garrett (Johnson) from prolific mumblecore director Joe Swanberg. This is almost certainly the most conventional movie of Swanberg's career, retaining very little from his microbudget largely improvisational films. Win It All fits comfortably in with the more dramatic "Sundance Indies" eschewing the artificial quirks of it's contemporaries in favour of streamlined character development and storytelling.
Eddie Garrett is a gambling addict. Parking cars as Cubs games solely to finance his nights (and early mornings) at his neighbourhood gambling den. It's easy to get the feeling that this is a man who constantly finds himself in debts to various people. One morning coming home from a full night of gambling he finds a friend sitting in his dining room with a black duffel bag. This friend wants Eddie to store the duffel while he is serving out a 6 month prison sentence. Eddie agrees and soon finds himself unable to resist the temptation to look inside the bag. He finds tens of thousands of dollars and proceeds to gamble a significant portion of it away, reaching his personal rock bottom before attempting to clean his life up.
The film does a phenomenal job putting the audience in the headspace of Eddie through the ups and downs in his life. We gets the highs of his wins, the disparaging lows of his losses, the struggles to get clean, the clarity and energy of clean living and the desperate sink back into addiction. This is where the film excels, in it's portrayal of a gambling addict and his attempt at recovery. Jake Johnson is great, showing how gambling controls his life. There's a standout scene early when he is trying to hide his gambling from his brother (Lo Truglio) and sister-in-law. Joe Lo Truglio is great here as well showing dramatic depth I had not seen from him before. He sells the older brother looking out for his little brother who has seen all the cycles of recovery and addiction before. Also involved is Eddie's sponsor, Gene (Key) who tries everything in his power to get Eddie to come back to meetings.
For all the greatness this film finds in it's portrait of addiction, it is held back by its overall tone. The best way to describe this movie is an indie drama with comedic overtones. These overtones are never bad or clashing, in fact they are quite often funny, but they work to limit the film's potential. With the director, writers and cast all having much more comedic than dramatic experience this film at times feels like it is only dipping its toes in drama. It is never able to fully sell its dramatic stakes. Even at his lowest points, it always feels like Eddie will rebound as if this is just a more serious episode from a sitcom.
Compounding this problem is the organically obligatory love interest, Eva (Derbez). I say organic because Derbez and Johnson have great chemistry and the entire night they meet is well done and perfectly fits into the story. After that though it begins to feel more like a plot device to run Eddie's addiction against. It even features more sitcom-y humour such as a plotline wherein Eddie just wants to have sex but Eva wants to wait. Again, the script and it's roots in comedy holding the film back. The makings of a great film are quite evident in Win It All though it never fully follows through on them instead settling for being merely good.
Schurmann Score - 7/10
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