Win It All

An entertaining watch, but there's no recognizable climax to the story. There seemed to be potential, but the plot line was just a steady routine from start to finish. This was about as exciting of a story as forgetting to set your alarm clock and waking up on time anyway.

"The urge to gamble is so universal and its practice is so pleasurable that I assume it must be evil." - Heywood Broun

Win It All is an unusually dark/light tale of card-gambling addiction because it subverts the usual notion that overcoming the addiction is just a McGuffin plot device. For Eddie (Jake Johnson), it is a matter serious enough to welcome us to join in his pain of avoiding the thing he loves to do and is not good at--gambling.

Eddie is asked to hold a bag while the owner does 6 months' time. Eddie is not to look in the bag, and if he is good about all this, he will earn $10,000. You can guess what happens to this compulsive gambler when he sees the money inside and foolishly convinces himself he can borrow, gamble, and return.

The pleasurable plot is that this rudderless gambler really tries to go straight, with some side roads to gambling, while his brother, Ron (Joe Lo Truglio) and sweetheart, Eva (Aislinn Derbez) try to coax him the right way. The story is never easy to figure ahead because he is such a loose cannon, capable of screwing up any good thing he starts.

Director Joe Swanberg lets us like Eddie while we're fearful of his ability to fall. We try not to invest in him, but he continues to screw up while we root. Eddie is a bit like Adam Sandler's Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems: ready to make a bad gamble at any moment but charming so we care even though we know he will disappoint us all.

The beauty of this 88 min melodrama is Eddie's character and the other characters who hope for Eddie's best. In that way Swanberg and co-writer Johnson create a semi-harrowing tale powered by character that ignores usual formula for gambling films.

Can you change a person who's addicted to gambling? Even more important, should you trust this person with money? Well you will find out once you watch this. The main character is very well cast and you get a nice supporting cast too. It's overall pretty decent for a movie of this kind but nothing special.

We also get treated to a love story and we know that there will be drama about the money. The brother figure gives this a whole different spin, though you are excused if you think there are quite a few glitches in logic to enhance drama. But that is how this works most of the time. Good enough, but nothing too exciting

Really enjoyed this charming bit of film.

There is clear chemistry between the director Joe Swanberg and it's lead Jake Johnson. This is very much a filmmaker who is at the top of his game, working on a loose script, or with improvisation, flawlessly.

There could be a case of a contrived nature to some of the plot but I think the overall feel and structure of the film fits nicely into it's just under 90 minute runtime.

8/10

(Flash Review)

Step into the life of a gambling addict, Eddie. Eddie makes a pittance now and then and immediately flushes it away. Out of the blue some sketchy guy he knows, presumably from the gambling world, offers him $10K to watch his duffle bag for 6-9 months without opening it, as he is checking into prison for a brief stretch. With zero willpower, he opens the bag and finds rolls of cash and dangerously gambles with it, losing much. Yikes! With positive life options brewing such as steady job and girlfriend will he overcome his addiction and the hole he dug himself? This was a stressful, tightly scoped and lightly tense watch. Good acting with an average story; room for improvement. An enjoyable enough drama.