Solid cast, improv nearly give 'Grand' a winning hand

By Michael Sragow | Sun Movie Critic

April 11, 2008

(B-) The year's big dramatic gambling hit, 21, is all plot, no personality; The Grand, a comedy that follows six contenders into the finals of a poker tournament, is all personality, no plot. I'll take personality.

The director and co-writer, Zak Penn, must have decided to indulge in moviemaking by address book. For this improvisational extravaganza, he's managed to corral the likes of Ray Romano, Michael McKean, and Estelle Harris into supporting roles and Jason Alexander, Hank Azaria and director Brett Ratner into even smaller ones.

Forget the gambling (the movie does, too, for long stretches). Penn is the Mike Todd of no-budget moviemaking, and this movie is the Around the World in 80 Days of hipster cameos: You keep watching just to see who'll show up next. The happiest surprise was director Werner Herzog, riding a tide of American publicity for Rescue Dawn, bringing his gloomy temperament and ominous aura into the role of an old-timer known only as the German.

Herzog satirizes his own pretensions mercilessly. It's hilarious to hear and see the narrator and director of Grizzly Man menacing and then coddling a fluffy white rabbit. Who'd have thought he'd be such a good sport?

Sport is hardly the point of The Grand, which is all about the disparate styles of contemporary poker, from Dennis Farina's grandiose man's-manliness as L.B.J. "Deuce" Fairbanks to Woody Harrelson's wasted yet weirdly instinctive "One-Eyed" Jack Faro. Harrelson, in good form, is like a one-man stoned soul picnic. Richard Kind plays nebbish Internet poker champ Andy Andrews, who never competed in the flesh before ( Judy Greer is his sweet, cheerful wife, who's into ribbons). Chris Parnell is the film's best-named character, Harold Melvin, a master analyst among players, who displays emotion mostly by chewing out his long, long-suffering mother (Harris).

But the most intriguing duo is Cheryl Hines and David Cross as brother-and-sister competitors, Lainie and Larry Schwartzman. In a gleefully foul-mouthed and refreshingly self-possessed way, Hines creates just the kind of big-hearted sibling an insecure fellow like Larry would need. In his sweaty agitation, Cross is like a poor man's Paul Giamatti. Romano plays Lainie's husband, who hasn't been the same since he was struck by lightning (he devotes his life to fantasy football). But the rediscovery of the movie is Gabe Kaplan as Lainie and Larry's father, a well-meaning schlub who doesn't realize that every time he enters his kids' lives it's like Greek tragedy played as farce.

The Grand is less like a movie than a sort of sit-down parade. But I love a parade.

>>>The Grand (Anchor Bay) Starring Dennis Farina, Woody Harrelson, Chris Parnell, Cheryl Hines, Richard Kind, David Cross. Directed by Zak Penn. Rated R for language and some drug content. Time 104 minutes.

michael.sragow@baltsun.com