Win It All

"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.

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

Jake Johnson (Let's be cops) stars as Eddie a guy who's down on his luck and addicted to gambling while trying to get his life back on track. Eddie soon gets into trouble after losing money he's supposed to be looking after as a favour. In debt and out of time, needing the money back can he 'win it all"? Co-staring is Jo Lo Truglio ( Brooklyn nine-nine).

Win it all, to me is just a low budget version of The Gambler staring Mark Wahlberg. Which I would say the latter is the better watch. Only just...

This Netflix Original film is average at best and just has no real depth to the film, a real lack of direction. Having said all of that the acting in this film is good and I felt there was good chemistry. One or two nice moments in the film but in the end you left feeling like maybe I've just wasted my time. Very forgettable. Review 5/10

This movie review can be quite short. The acting is decent and the directing is also pretty good but the part this movie is lacking is a good plot. The movie is not that long but still felt boring at sometimes. I would say this movie fits more into the drama genre but has the ingredients of a thriller while pretending to be a comedy. The plot is way to straight forward and the characters in the movie lack depth. But not everything is negative because if i find a movie bad i'll just turn it off and allthough i thought about it i watched the whole thing. (Good thing the playing time isn't that long.)

I was expecting more of a poker/gambling movie but instead you just watch a pretty normal guy with a mild gambling addiction work himself in to trouble. Then he does what every normal human being would do and he tries to get back in to the sadle of life by living a fairly normal life. It's all pretty straightforward stuff and this movie could use a bit more spice in the plot. The movie is average at best. Lacks the depth for a drama, lacks the plot for a thriller and lacks jokes for a comedy.

The whole movie feels like a flat line which is not what most people are looking for in a movie. If you're just looking for an easy straightforward movie this one suits just fine. If you're however looking for more entertainment and excitement this is not the one. You're probably better of watching a favorite classic over again.

"Win It All" is a film about a guy who is floating through life, never accepting responsibility. He is also a gambling addict, which is partly to blame for his lack of maturity. He knows he needs to reform, but he cannot muster the willpower. Like most gamblers, he is always waiting for the big payoff to pull him out of his hole, and fate sends him an opportunity to regain fiscal fitness--if he can just control his impulses.

This is a solid kernel of an idea for a film, and Jake Johnson feels committed to the part of the main character, Eddie, but the film never reaches its potential.

Much of the story feels clichéd and the characters are underdeveloped. This is most noticeable with Eddie's romantic relationship--with Eva (Aislinn Derbez, who feels like she has more to contribute). The development of their feelings for each other is cheated by many brief scenes that sometimes feel like a montage.

This may be due, in part, to editing, but the writing is the main culprit. In scenes that should carry some weight, there is inadequate exposition. It's like watching a Cliff's Notes version of a film.

The ending is abrupt and underwhelming. It's unclear if this was intentional or if it was due to the inadequate build-up of dramatic tension.