Review of Everything Must Go (2011) by Tom B — 05 Sep 2012

A disjointed, depressing film. It's unclear the point it's trying to portray. Will Ferrell plays Nick, a Job-like character who is fired after a subordinate gets him drunk and accuses him of sexual improprieties. His wife leaves him and throws all his stuff on the front yard. The movie is about how he reacts, finally disposing of his baggage? The ending is very ambiguous as he embraces a neighbor who apparently was just reunited with her similarly troubled husband.

Not to say there weren't good things in the film. First is Ferrell's performance: a complex portrayal of a lost man. He develops a sweet relationship with a boy, delightfully played by Christopher Jordan Wallace, who rides his bike by the cluttered lawn and eventually organizes the sale. There is another sweet segment with the always wonderful Laura Dern, but it goes nowhere. At the end of the film Nick suffers more body blows and goes off into a future that the audience has no idea what it will bring. The only conclusion is that life sucks and then you die.