If you are a Robert Altman fan, Mississippi Grind sounds almost identical to California Split, which I have seen a couple of time because I forget that I have seen it before and then rewatch it because Altman, Just Shoot Me’s George Segal and Elliot Gould. Fortunately this film is more of a reimagining than a remake though to be fair, I have managed to forget enough of the details of Altman’s movie that take my comparison with a grain of salt. Normally I would rewatch the original then the reimaging film, but I do not have time for it. Three times to see a movie that I like but don’t love seems excessive.
Mississippi Grind ended up in my queue because of Ben Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn is one of the finest actors of our times. I initially saw him in Animal Kingdom, a disturbing Australian film that shook me to my core and has haunted me ever since. Even when he sells out for more commercial films, he is usually the best feature of the film and makes even the worst film worth watching—I’m looking at you Robin Hood, my guilty pleasure. His natural voice is more muscular than his physique and serves him well as he gets typecast as a villain, but he has been able to effectively change his accent depending on the role and is quite versatile and believable in any context.
I was unaware that Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the directors of Captain Marvel, directed Mississippi Grind, but it would have been another reason. I have never seen another film that Boden directed, but I did see Fleck’s Half Nelson and was not a fan so at this point, Captain Marvel was a first and only point that Boden and Fleck scored. It is possible that it was a fluke, which considering that many people do not get one taste of success, especially to the scale and quality of a Marvel movie, is still quite impressive. What did the masterminds at Marvel see in Boden and Fleck? Was it this movie?
Mississippi Grind stars Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds as two gamblers who befriend each other and decide to go on a road trip to see if their luck can last. Is their friendship genuine, will they betray each other and choose their addiction or will they come out on top because they cannot lose together?
I have mixed feeling about Mississippi Grind. May I devote a brief moment to Reynolds. He is attractive, charming and the kind of smart mouth that we like, not resent, but other than Deadpool, he is the guy that you put in the movie to make it bankable and is not generally a sign of quality. If I was not such a Mendelsohn fan, I would have run screaming in the other direction. He is not a versatile, serious actor and only works best in comedies. I felt as if he really tried in this film and was probably thrilled to be taken seriously, but he never quite escapes the gravity of his resume, and it affected how I read his character, which may have been intentional, but it misdirected me for too long. It was his shot to steal a role from Ryan Gosling. I appreciate the effort, but his character was still close to type.
Mississippi Grind is visually intriguing initially. It is a parallel character study with a dash of the natural supernatural. Mendelsohn’s character commences in the foreground with Reynolds in the background then when each individually goes to a different location, they switch the camera’s focus. When they fully connect, they share the screen on the same level. When the film separates the two, but continues to examine them individually in parallel scenes, it is less arresting and leeches the narrative of momentum. At some point, Reynolds’ character, Curtis, stops being as active a playmate and a lucky charm for the purpose of creating narrative tension, but for me, it had the opposite effect. Their individual stories feel tropey and predictable when women become part of the story: from the ex-wife to the hooker with a heart of gold.
The delightful exception to the role of women in Mississippi Grind was the casting of Alfre Woodward. I do not want to spoil the character that she plays, but it is definitely casting against type on levels and is a brilliant bit of race and gender bending when rethinking who should play that character. Just because I was less than thrilled with the way that the ex-wife and hooker were written, you should not conflate it with disappointment with the actors’ performance. Sienna Miller is always unrecognizable, but does a great job injecting practical realities into the sex worker’s story. I instantly adored Robin Weigert, who plays the ex-wife, since Concussion, and usually I do not recognize her, but she plays her role with a sober, sedate freshness not usually infused into such a role. She knows how to balance weariness and anger, but I need her to be cast as the protagonist more to appreciate her excellence.
Boden and Fleck are essentially optimistic directors. It is hard to reduce a master such as Altman to a simple outlook, but if I am recollecting him correctly, he feels more organic, highly stylized and cultivated. I do not recall expecting a happy ending for his pair whereas Boden and Fleck definitely place their thumb on the scale from the opening shot. If their pair occupy a fallen, faded world of desperation, addiction and loneliness, their ability to even briefly escape this world and experience wonder and awe in the natural world signal the existence of their soul and the genuineness of their connection to a better world, a past that was less sordid. They may not be good people capable of having normal, functional, healthy relationships, but in each other, they make a friend and are better than individually though they misinterpret what that means for the other and himself. Curtis may not have an angle, and Mendelsohn’s Gerry may not be such an ordinary, easy mark every man that he appears to be. While it worked, it was a skosh too close to a cheesy route for a happy ending. The theme felt a bit heavy-handed, but since I appreciate a Biblical reference, I was willing to sign a waiver. Unfortunately the simple need for a waiver undercuts the story a smidge.
There is a cat and a kitten in Mississippi Grind, and I need a postscript at the end of the film reassuring me that the fictional cat and kitten characters are fine. The final wordless shot when Boden and Fleck make us realize how important the cat actually is to Gerry worked for me on a visceral level. Yes a cat should be innately important for who that cat is, but the cat as a potent symbol worked.
Mississippi Grind as a mournful American road trip film was an independent film taking a chance on a Hollywood star. It is uneven, and its deliberate pacing for the individual characters may slow the narrative momentum that the pair built, but if it fails, it does so by caring more about the characters than the flash. The only problem is when the characters are closer to archetypes than individuals, which is when the quality cast saves it from the morass of expectation.