Everything Must Go

"I'm no different than any of you. I just don't hide in my house."

 

 

What do you do when you reach rock bottom? I am not talking about oh I had a bad day rock bottom; I am talking about lost your job, wife left you, your things are on the front lawn, and you have resorted back to drinking rock bottom. How about sitting on a chair on your lawn and not leave? That is exactly what Will Ferrell does in the 2010 movie Everything Must Go.
Ferrell plays Nick who is an alcoholic whose wife leaves him with everything on in lawn on the same day that he loses his job. Nick cannot handle what is happening to him and decides to not leave the comfort of his front lawn. It is determined that Nick can only stay on his front lawn for a total of 5 days and if he is having a yard sale. Ferrell befriends a neighborhood kid to help him organize his things in exchange for baseball lessons. A young woman moves across the street and befriends Nick as well. As he begins to sink lower and lower, he starts to actually sell of his belongings and feel better about things.
This movie was based on the short story by Raymond Carver, "Why Don't You Dance". I have never read the short story, but I felt that the movie was really lacking in a lot of spots. It was your basic story about not being able to truly start over until you have shed everything that has ever held you back. Nick was supposed to be a baseball star back in high school. You never learn why he doesn't  play anymore and IF he still loves the game. When the neighborhood boy asks him to teach him, he is reluctant at first but then agrees. He gives him one lesson, and then it is never explored again.
The same goes for when Nick is looking through his high school year book. He comes across something that one of his old classmates wrote to him. He tracks her down to ask her about it, and then doesn't even remember what she talks to him about. That entire scene is never references again. I actually just forgot about it until I started writing this review.
The film only gives you tiny bits and pieces of things. It failed to really elaborate on anything, and because of that you don't really feel a connection to any of the characters. This is always the problem when adapting a short story into a full length movie. Sometimes it is hard to fill in the holes that a short story may have and still keep the integrity of your story alive.
I think that one of the things that this film tried to explore was the idea of hiding behind your curtians so to speak. Everything hides things about themselves, and Nick had left his entire life on his lawn, literally. He didn't hide his drinking problem or the fact that his wife has thrown him out of the house. Nick actually says this to his new neighbor at one point. If this was what they where trying to go for, I love that idea, but it still fell short.
I did find Will Ferrell's performance in this movie to be very good. I am so used to seeing him as Frank the Tank! I thought that he really took this serious role and did it justice. There may be more to this actor than he has been able to show us through his career. I would love to be able to see him do more roles like this one.
This is really not a movie that I would recommend unless you would like to see Ferrell do something different. I didn't feel that there was anything special here or that set it apart from other "starting over" movies. So unless you've hit rock bottom with your movie choices, I would avoid this one.