Win It All

"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.

(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.

"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.

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.

This movie was quite engaging, accurate, Dark, and funny.

The chemistry between Jake and Joe was awesome- not surprising since they roll in the same circle in the tv industry.

To be honest, if you have any experience with a friend or family member with an addiction... this movie kind of hits all the right spots. Keegan was great as well... but Joe lo Truglio truly stole every scene he was in. Very nice display of his range.

Good movie.