Review of Mississippi Grind (2015) by Tim G — 19 Jun 2016

**** Good.

I am warning you this might be a pun grind by reading my review of Writer-Directors Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck's independent movie "Mississippi Grind". But I promise you it will be fine, well maybe not. The vastly underrated (just my opinion) Ben Mendelsohn stars as out-of-luck gambler Gerry. He resides in Iowa, but really is living in the state of "I owe all of you" due to his gargantuan gambling debt. In one of his poker dealings, Gerry meets Curtis; he is the suave gambler full of stories that takes a friendly liking to Gerry. Curtis is played by Ryan Reynolds. Gerry and Curtis team up and take it on the road to deal with the cards that have been handed. OK, maybe not. But they do take it on the road, to try to make some gamble winnings in New Orleans, St. Louis, and yea Mississippi. Boden & Fleck's narrative is not overwhelmingly superb, and they are not really "jack of all cinema trades" filmmakers. But they do develop an adequate road trip movie that is built upon the winning chemistry between Mendelsohn and Reynolds. Both were excellent with their performances but I would double down more a bit with Mendelsohn's rousing performance. It's in his bloodline I mean lifeline for Mendelsohn to get an Oscar in the future. The rest of the cast needed a bigger wheel to spin with, especially Sienna Miller's useless character Simone who plays an intermittent love interest of Curtis. But it was not a big loss to deal with. It's your call, but I think you should take the gamble and visit on the "Mississippi Grind".